


Sunny D(anvers)

by ilovekaradanvers



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, High School, Minor Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer, Slow Burn, kara and lena are neighbors!, kara has been on earth for two years, lena has a cat, lex and clark are still friends in this, lex isn't crazy yet either, lionel is nice and alive but not for long bc i love angst, or at least im trying for one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2018-10-31 19:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10906248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovekaradanvers/pseuds/ilovekaradanvers
Summary: Her reflection stares back at her in the dark window of the other house and Kara wonders if anyone had ever turned a light on in the room. What room was she staring into? A bedroom? Office? Bathroom? Deciding that she may never know, she stops her daydreaming and goes to bed. Kara takes one last look at the moon above her before glancing back at the dark window where--someone turned on the light.orThe house next door hadn't been lived in for the two years Kara has been on Earth. One day, a light turns on in the house, and who better to be there but Lena Luthor? Tune in for friendship shenanigans, slow burn, and growing up together :)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! so i just letting you know off the bat that i have other chapters of this written already, so i'm hoping to be able to update often. i have no idea how long this will be... so buckle up for the ride and enjoy!!! (also the kryptonian translations are at the end of this chapter! and then for other times after this the translations will be in the notes)

The wind sweeps over the grass slowly, pushing the long green blades over like waves. Kara runs her hands along the ground gently, feeling the plushness of the healthy plant life beneath her palm. She hears Alex walk up behind her and keeps her eyes on the small worm making its way through the dirt.

 

“What’s that one called again?” She asks without turning around. Alex squats down beside her to look and huffs before letting herself fall to the ground. 

 

“You're doing it again,” is all she offers. Kara lets out a small “oh” and scrambles to place her glasses over her eyes. 

 

“Sorry, I didn't realize,” she mumbles once the frames are in place on the bridge of her nose. She can no longer see the pink thing under the ground and her eyes focus instead on the human beside her. “It was… pink? And thin, long. Round?” 

 

“A worm,” Alex says curtly as she lays down to look at the clouds. 

 

“Right,” Kara whispers. “Thanks.” Alex nods and purses her lips into a smile before closing her eyes. Kara takes a deep breath and looks out over the water. 

 

_ “Gehd nahn :dhoia,” _ she whispers. 

 

“Kara,” Alex warns. Kara closes her eyes and grimaces before Alex continues, “you know you're not supposed to speak Kryptahniuo outside.” 

 

“I was hoping you couldn't hear it,” Kara admits. She flops down next to Alex and winces when the ground beneath her turns into a slight crater. Alex says nothing as Kara slowly gets up and walks to lay down,  _ gently _ , on her other side. “Did Eliza send you out?” 

 

“No,” Alex says. Neither of them say anything for a moment before Alex let's out a sigh and says, “Yes.”

 

“She didn't have to send you out,” Kara assures. 

 

“She kinda did though. You haven't eaten all day.” 

 

“I hate that you know when I’m upset purely because my appetite,” Kara whines. Alex digs awkwardly in her pocket and pulls out a protein bar.

 

“At least eat this until dinner,” Alex says as she holds out the bar. Kara takes it and eats its quickly before making a displeased face. 

 

“These are different than the other ones,” Kara sighs. “Eliza should go back to the other brand.”

 

“I’ll let her know that.” The conversation dies and Kara tries to ignore the way Alex keeps glancing at her. Alex sits up and faces away from her to look across the water before turning back to Kara, who stiffens as Alex leans forward and hovers over her. 

 

“What's wrong?” Alex asks gently. 

 

“Nothing,” Kara insists. Alex raises her eyebrows at this and Kara turns on her side to face away from her. 

 

“Liar,” Alex sing songs. She reaches out and turns Kara onto her back and smiles at her before turning serious. “Are you nervous about school?”

 

“Maybe,” Kara whispers. Alex lays back down next to her and grabs her hand. 

 

“High school is nothing to worry about. It's the same people you've gone to school with since you’ve been here and some more. The biggest thing you have to worry about is finding your way around the building and it's barely different than the middle school.”

 

“That's not what I'm worried about,” Kara admits. 

 

“Then what is it?”

 

“I don't know! I’m just worried in general.”

 

“Don't be. If anything happens, I’ll be there. Also, the high school is closer to home than the middle school, so mom can come get you easily if you need her to.”

 

“I guess,” Kara mumbles. Alex squeezes Kara’s hand tightly and lets the silence fall. 

 

They watch as the sky slowly turns from bright blue to oranges and pinks over the ocean. Kara sighs when clouds burn the same shade as the sky on Krypton. From behind them, the back door opens and Eliza’s voice rings out across the back yard. 

 

“Girls! Dinner is ready!”

 

Alex stands and holds out a hand for Kara, who shakes her head. 

 

“I just need a minute. I promise I’ll be in soon,” Kara promises as she sits up. Alex nods at her and turns to jog inside. 

 

The sun is halfway under the horizon now, the sky soft rather than burning, like mornings on Krypton. The light hitting the water reminds Kara of the busy streets and flashing pods, her home. Not her home. At least, not anymore. She glances at the coast in front of her, cringing at the brightness of the plants. Her eyes focus instead on the setting sun and she she tells herself she’s looking at Rao.

 

_ “Sokao-krym khap bykhuhs ehrosh voiehd.”  _

 

She tries her hardest not to cry and stands, letting the reality of her location come at her full force. She lets her ears go and hears crappy cars and people speaking English and sees the green plants all around her and the white clouds in the blue sky. 

 

Earth. A new beginning. A second chance. A life to live.

 

It was hard to see it in the positive way her mother once explained it.

 

To Kara, all it was was a reminder that she was alone.

 

That she was abandoned.

 

That her only living blood relative left, the only other member of her species, was across the country, unwilling to keep her.

 

Alone.

 

Kara heaves a sigh and brushes the tears off her cheeks before walking up to the house, determined to turn around her mood.

 

Tomorrow, she would not be Kara Zor-El, broken little girl from the lost planet Krypton. No.

 

She would be Kara Danvers, an immigrant with sensory issues from a village in Ukraine. She would be happy.

 

* * *

 

 

The alarm blares through the air and Kara reaches over to tap the off button. One of the perks of being Kryptonian was not needing as much sleep as humans. This however was also a problem, seeing as she never slept when she was nervous.

 

Kara has been dressed and ready for school for two hours. Instead of doing anything productive, she’s been watching the time go by. Literally. Blue eyes were glued onto the electric clock in her bedside table as the numbers flashed past until they hit 7:00 and her alarm went off.

 

She gets up off her bed and walks to the window facing her neighbors house. Or rather, the house next door, seeing as it’s never had any occupants for the last two years. The moon is still visible in the cool morning sky, and if she looks out the window at the right angle, the other house isn’t blocking her view of it. A pro of having a house right up against yours is being able to sit on your window sill without having to worry about falling. The con is not being able to see much from the window facing said house. Luckily for Kara, her room is in the front, and holds plenty of other windows to look out of.

 

She sighs and grabs her bag off of the desk in the corner of her room on her way out the door, making sure to knock on Alex’s door on her way down the hall. The smell of bacon greets her nose and she smiles, knocking harder on Alex’s door until she hears a groan in response. Kara runs downstairs at  _ human speed _ , which makes her feel like she’s a slug stuck in jello, and blows into the kitchen where Eliza is standing.

 

“You’re ready quick,” the older woman says skeptically as she sets a plate in front of Kara to place food on once it’s done.

 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Kara starts, her accent extremely present. She coughs to clear her throat and continues on, trying to speak without the accent. “I didn’t use super speed,” she says slowly with no lilt in her voice. Eliza raises her eyebrows and looks at the clock on the microwave.

 

“You’ve been awake for five minutes and you’re already showered and dressed?”

 

“I’ve um,” she starts, “I’ve kind of been up since five this morning?” Kara peers through her glasses as Eliza’s expression turns from suspicious to concerned. Immediately, Eliza is putting a mountain of bacon on Kara’s plate before walking around the island to hug her.

 

“You’ll be alright, dear,” Eliza says soothingly as she rubs Kara’s back. Kara doesn’t hug back fully, her arms are barely around her foster mother. She breaks things too easily. She can’t risk it, even when Eliza tells her she can hug her harder. Kara doesn’t trust herself.

 

“I know,” Kara mumbles against her shoulder. She pulls away and reassures Eliza with an unconvincing smile before turning to her mountain of bacon. “Thank you, by the way,” she says with a handful of bacon in her mouth.

 

“It’s no problem, sweetie. It’s not everyday that you start high school!” Eliza walks out of the kitchen and yells up to Alex to make sure she’s awake and Kara takes the opportunity to let the smile slip off her face.  _ It’s also not everyday you’d be graduating your first session of guild lessons,  _ she thinks. 

 

Immediately, Kara shakes her head and touches her fingertips to her glasses. She can’t remember that kind of stuff. Not today. She thinks of Eliza and Alex, who love her. She thinks of her baby cousin, who is alive and well. She thinks of her parents, who sacrificed everything so she could live. She thinks of the opportunity she was given, to live and uphold the legacy of her House. She thinks of the cute animals on Earth, the pretty green plants, the small buildings. Her new home. 

 

Light seeps through the window as the sun begins to rise and Eliza returns to the kitchen with Alex in tow. Kara can feel her skin grow warm and her body hums with energy. Alex hates the sun in the mornings; she always complains that it’s too bright, but Kara loves it. The sun makes her feel light and energized rather than low and sorrowful. 

 

It reminds her of Rao, and how her whole family is in his light. It reminds her that, even though they are dead, her family is still well and happy.

 

She smiles her first genuine smile in a week as her sister sits down on the stool next to her.

 

“Morning, Alex,” she says cheerily. Alex grumbles lightly and tries to look indifferent, but she can’t help the smile that grows on her face as she takes in Kara’s mood.

 

“You’re feeling better?” Alex sneaks a piece of bacon from Kara’s plate as Eliza begins to make more and Kara nods.

 

“The sun really helps. And I made sure to think happy things,” Kara says as she gets up to get a glass of orange juice. 

 

“You’re like a rechargeable battery or something,” Alex quips.

 

“Thanks,” Kara says before turning around with a crinkle between her eyebrows. “I think,” she adds. She sets her now empty glass in the sink and sits back down next to Alex. “When do we have to be there?” Alex glances up to the clock on the wall and sighs.

 

“Soon,” she says.

 

“How soon?”

 

“We need to leave in five minutes,” Eliza offers. Suddenly, Kara’s stomach feels like it’s flipping over a million times and she tries to think of good things. Eliza. Alex. Kal-El. Animals. Green plants. Blue water. Kara gets up and walks to the window, picking up her backpack on the way, to soak in some sun in the hopes it will calm her down. 

 

Before she’s had time to calm down completely, Eliza is ushering her out the front door and into the car. The ride to the school is fast and Alex scrambles out of the car to go say hi to friends while Kara stays in the back seat. Eliza turns around and offers her the brightest smile she can muster.

 

“Today will go well. I promise. What’s the home phone number?”

 

“341-555-9064,” Kara recites. Eliza smiles holds up her hand for a high five. Kara reaches out to give her a gentle high five. 

 

“Good. Remember, if your ears start to hurt really badly, the teachers know that you can call me and come home.” 

 

“I know,” Kara replies. She glances out of the window and sees Alex waving at her to get out of the car, so Kara leans forward and hugs Eliza gently. “Thank you,” she whispers before bolting out of the car. 

 

Alex is waiting for her patiently by the front doors with a short boy with her. Kara approaches slowly and eyes the boy before tilting her head in question. 

 

“Kara, this is Winn. He's my… acquaintance… and he has some classes with you,” Alex explains. She steps forward and eyes the boy -- Winn -- before leaning in. “You don't have to stick around with him. I just thought you'd appreciate someone walking you to your first class,” Alex whispers. She leans in and gives Kara a hug, who returns it gently, and turns to leave. “I’ll see you at lunch, okay?”

 

“Alright,” Kara says with a smile. She turns to Winn, who looks nervous, and offers him her hand. “I’m Kara!” 

 

“Winn,” the boy offers. He cocks his head in the directions of the door and Kara nods. “Do you like science?” Winn asks as he opens the door. Kara grins and steps through the door. 

 

“Yeah! All of my teachers tell me how advanced I am in it, but I don't think I want to pursue it as a career,” Kara admits, pursing her lips. 

 

“Why?”

 

“Oh, well,” she falters, “my father… was a scientist,” she chokes out. It’s always hard to speak about her parents.

 

“Oh,” Winn says. “I’m sorry. I don't have a dad either,” he offers solemnly. Kara gives him a sad smile and checks the paper in her hand. Room 218. 

 

“I’m sorry too,” Kara says. “Where's the room?” She asks, eager to get away from this topic. 

 

“It's just down the hall,” Winn says. He smiles at Kara mischievously and asks, “How do you feel about science fiction?” Kara laughs and shakes her head. 

 

“It’s amusing, but some of it is just too clo-” Kara pauses and closes her eyes. Not close to home. There's no home to be close to. “It’s too far out for me. I like more nonfiction things, this planet is pretty interesting.”

 

“So are other planets! I’ve read so much about other planets, like Starhaven!”

 

“I agree,  _ Ehl-mishidh  _ is pretty cool,” Kara says. “The grass there is pink!” She looks at him happily as he eyes her suspiciously. “-or so I hear.”

 

“El mishy duh?” Winn asks, his stinted Kryptahnuio making Kara cringe. She didn't mean to speak it. 

 

“Yeah, its um. It's ‘Starhaven’ in my native language. Ukrainian,” Kara adds sadly.  _ Not Ukrainian,  _ she thinks.

 

“That's cool! When did you move here?” 

 

“Um, two years ago… But I learned English back home,” the practiced lie rolls off her tongue and she smiles at Winn. She sees the number on the door ahead of them, room 218. “We’re here.”

 

“We have a few more minutes before eight, when classes start. You can go in or stay out here, I normally just go in,” Winn explains with an awkward flourish of his hands. Kara beams at the silly gesture and nods her head. 

 

“Lead the way!”

 

Winn opens the door and ushers Kara in. A seating chart is on the board and Kara uses it to find her seat in the back. Winn waves at her and sits in his seat in the front of the room. She looks away from him and the second her ears aren't focused on one person, the rest of the school noises come crashing in. The tick of the lockers, the slam of the metal doors, students chatting and teachers yelling. She tries not to wince as someone screams playfully and runs. 

 

Kara focuses on the teacher at the desk who’s shuffling papers. She listens to the way the paper crinkles and the way the teacher’s fingers sound against the stiff white sheets. As students fill in the room, she notices how they aren’t as loud as they were a moment ago. The teacher starts to speak once the annoying -- but not painfully loud -- bell rings and she notes that it sounds smooth rather than sharp. 

 

Maybe she was getting the hang of this.

 

* * *

 

 

She was not getting the hang of this.

 

Kara made it through the first three classes of her day -- math, a study hall, and English -- before making her way to the lunch rooms. If the noises from the hallway were anything to go off of, the lunchroom was a jungle. Alex walks around the corner and turns to say goodbye to her friends as she spots Kara, who hangs by the wall as far away as possible.

 

“Hey,” the tall girl says as she walks up to Kara. “How’s your day been so far?”

 

“Alright,” Kara sighs, “The kids in math kept groaning and sighing, it was getting annoying. We weren’t even doing anything hard.”

 

“Remind me of what math you’re in?” Alex asks with a pointed eyebrow raise. 

 

“C- Calculus?” Kara smiles nervously and pushes up her glasses. She can see the mild annoyance in Alex’s eyes and grimaces. “What?”

 

“I’m two years ahead of you,” Alex states matter of factly. “I’m only in pre-calc. You’re two years younger than me, but you’re a year ahead in math.”

 

“Well on-” she stops herself before Alex can say anything, “back home, math was much more complex. I was doing the stuff you guys are learning now before I came here.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Freaky genius,” Alex says with a smile to make sure Kara interprets it the correct way. She doesn’t.

 

“Huh?” she asks, crinkling her eyebrows.

 

“Nothing, let’s just go sit down.”

 

Alex walks over to the doors and opens them, letting the noise from inside pour out. Kara immediately focuses in on Alex’s heartbeat to drown out the yelling and various noises students are making. Her hand flies to her sisters as they make their way to the corner of the room, where Winn is sitting along with a few other kids. 

 

“Hey Kara,” Winn says, his voice muffled. “This is James and Maggie.”

 

“Hi,” she says weakly. Alex sits down next to Maggie and pats the seat next to her, indicating for Kara to sit. 

 

“What other classes do you have today?” Winn asks Kara as he rips off part of a peanut butter sandwich. She looks up at him and smiles brightly at the way his voice sounds. Soft, toned down. 

 

“I have science, art, world history, and astronomy,” she says with a smile as James perks up. 

 

“What period do you have art?”

 

“Um… seventh? I think?” She looks to Alex for confirmation, who nods. “Yeah, seventh.”

 

“Hey, me too! If there's no seating chart, we should sit together,” James said with a bright smile. Kara grinned at him happily and missed the way Alex rolled her eyes. His voice was low and smooth. 

 

“Who's your science teacher?” Maggie asks as she steals something from Alex’s lunch. Her voice was high, but not in an annoying way. It was gentle. (Kara made a side note in her head to tell Alex that she made good friends, if their kind voices were anything to go by.)

 

“Um, Ms. Gabriel. I have her-” she cut off and reached into the pocket of her blue jeans for her schedule. “-fifth and sixth.”

 

“Advanced physical science two? I’ve got that too. Aren't you a freshman?” Maggie nods her head, impressed. Kara blushes and stutters before Alex comes to her rescue. 

 

“Kara is really smart,” Alex proclaims. She looks at Kara with pride in her eyes and continues. “Back in Ukraine, she was on her way to the most prestigious science based school.” James and Maggie had shocked looks on their faces and Winn whispered “wow,” and Kara fought back tears with a smile. 

 

“If I ever need help with any homework…” Maggie trails off and Kara laughs. 

 

“I’ll help you,” she says with a grin. Alex shakes her head, but laughs.

 

“Sawyer, don’t take advantage of my little sister.” Alex put one arm around Kara, who felt happiness swell in her chest. Alex squeezed her in a side hug, and Kara let herself squeeze Alex’s arm a little harder than normal. 

 

The rest of the lunch period flew by, with Winn asking Kara what her interests were while James and Maggie chimed in a few times. Kara felt good as she walked through the halls with Maggie beside her. Her ears hurt a little bit and her glasses were starting to make the sides of her head sore, but she felt happy. 

 

By the end of science, her head was pounding. The Earth physics still confused her and the simplistic elements bored her. She tried to listen to the teacher as she drawled on and on with her high-pitched, squeaky voice, but found it too difficult as the noise quickly gave her a headache. Nevertheless, she was a responsible student and wrote down anything that the teacher put on the board, just in case she needed it. 

 

There were boys sitting behind her who kept making comments about the “fresh meat.” Kara was confused by this until Maggie informed her that they were talking about her in a bad way, and Kara deflated. Thankfully, Maggie had the sense to drag her out of the room before the boys could do or say anything to her.

 

Art and world history passed by swimmingly compared to science. The art room was warm and welcoming with varying art pieces all around the room. The teacher was an eclectic woman with a hard-ass attitude. Everyone assured Kara that she was just trying to scare away the “weak ones,” and that she’d be friendly tomorrow. The history teacher was a scary man who explained history with a few too many metaphors rather than solid information. His room was full of posters with important dates on them, but it was impersonal and cold, very unlike the art room.

 

Astronomy was pleasantly different. Rather than the headache inducing differences in physical science, astronomy offered her the picture of new stars, as well as a few old ones from a different angle. Of course, the stars that she did know were named differently and were rearranged, but she recognized them. Her teacher spoke in terms that she understood, in equations that she mastered as a child. 

 

The comforting stars did almost nothing to heal her headache and by the end of the day her ears feel like they had been submerged in water for days. She finds Alex outside, who’s looking at her knowingly as she tries to hide the pain, across the court with the people they sat with at lunch. 

 

“Hey Kara!” Winn yells from his point far away. Kara winces and watches as Alex elbows him in the ribs before she leaning in.

 

“Idiot, I told you she has sensory issues. Quiet down,” Alex whisper screams at Winn. Kara shouldn’t have been able to hear it, but she was getting lazy with tuning out the world around her.

 

“Hi,” James says quietly as she approached. Both Alex and Kara send him looks of gratitude before Kara went back to trying to ignore the pain in her head.

 

“Alex are we going home now?” Kara asks desperately. Alex turns toward Maggie and raises her eyebrows.

 

“I told you she wouldn’t want to,” she drawls. Kara frowns and Alex turns back to her to clarify. “Maggie thought that we might want to go down to the beach tonight, but I told her you probably wouldn’t be up for it.”

 

“You’re right,” Kara says, defeated. “I just want to go home, everything hurts. Sorry.”

 

“It’s okay Little Danvers,” Maggie says with a smile. “We understand. Go get some rest, we’ll see you tomorrow!” Maggie turns to James and Winn and ushers them to her car. 

 

“Do you want me to call mom and tell her to pick us up?”

 

“No,” Kara begins as a group of teenagers run passed them, screaming. She winces and watches as Alex pulls her phone out of her pocket and sighs, “yes.” Alex smiles and calls Eliza to ask her to come get them, citing Kara’s pain as their reason for not walking. In about five minutes, Eliza pulls up to the school and Kara has to hold herself back from running at full speed into the safe and silent confines of the car.

 

“How was your day, girls?” Eliza asks sweetly. 

 

“Mine was okay, classes should be easy this year,” Alex replies absently as she watches the world pass outside. 

 

“Kara?” Eliza prompts.

 

“It was alright,” she whispers. Alex and Eliza can barely hear her, but they don’t bother telling her to speak up. “My teachers were all nice and assured me that I had every right to get up and call you without explanation, which was very nice of them.” Kara pauses and listens to the rhythmic way the engine turns beneath them.

 

“My science teacher speaks in ways I don’t always understand and her voice is loud, but it’s okay,” she continues after a moment. “Everything else went alright, I just had a headache for the second half of the day.”

 

“I’m sorry about your head. Maybe you should nap until dinner? See if that helps?” Eliza suggests as they pull in the driveway. The suggestion makes Kara yawn and she nods her head before trudging up to the front door with her head down, missing the car parked in the neighbor's driveway.

 

Toeing off her shoes and setting aside her backpack, Kara rushes up the the stairs and goes straight to her room. Her head hurts less at the warm orange walls and the glow-in-the-dark stars adorning her ceiling arranged in her favorite constellation from Krypton. This room is her safe haven, filled with everything that both reminds her of home and reminds her that she’s found a new home.

 

Her bed sits in the corner of her room, diagonal from her desk and across from her door, and she crawls over the footboard to her pillows the second she’s entered the room. Kara moves her pillows so they are in a half circle and pulls the blanket up. She settles in and sighs contentedly, happy to be in her little nest. Sleep comes almost instantly.

 

* * *

 

 

Hours later, Kara wakes up to a knock on her door.

 

“Kara dinner is ready,” Alex’s voice comes through the door softly. 

 

“Okay,” Kara replies hoarsely. She sits up and peels the blanket away from her body, grateful that the cold doesn’t affect her the same way that it affects humans. Once upright and slightly less disoriented, Kara notices a mug of hot chocolate sitting on her bedside table. She doesn’t remember anyone coming in her room, which confirms how exhausted she was after school, but knows for a fact that it was Alex. She grins and pulls the cup toward her before heating it up with her heat vision. After the drink is warm enough for her, Kara grabs her glasses and slides them onto her nose.

 

Kara pauses to change out of her jeans and into fuzzy pj bottoms, opting to leave her pink sweater on. She steps into her slippers and pads into the hall with her hot cocoa secured safely in her hands. 

 

Downstairs, Eliza and Alex are both waiting for her at the table. Eliza smiles at Kara and the blonde can tell that both of them are worried about her ears hurting again. She grins brightly and takes a big sip of her hot cocoa as she sits.

 

“I’m alright now, my head doesn’t hurt anymore.” Kara laughs as Alex sighs with relief at this.

 

“Thank god, I couldn’t bear to sit through a silent dinner,” Alex reveals as she starts to move food onto her plate. Eliza shakes her head lovingly and smiles as Kara grabs over half of the food she’s made.

 

“Thank you so much for being so considerate,” Kara says. “I know it’s not easy dealing with me when I’m moody or in pain, and I know it’s stressful having to make this much food, but it really means a lot.”

 

“Sweetie, anything for you,” Eliza says with a warm smile. “You’re not a burden on any of us, no matter how much you eat,” she says teasingly.

 

Dinner passes quickly and Kara finishes her food before both Eliza and Alex, even though she had about twice as much food. She didn’t notice how tired she still was until she had nothing to do but sip on her third mug of hot cocoa and watch her family eat.

 

“Honey, why don’t you go back to your room and rest, you’re practically falling asleep in your seat.”

 

“We don’t want that,” Alex says cautiously. “Last time that happened we couldn’t move you an inch, you’re like a rock when you sleep.” Kara smiles slightly and picks herself up off of the table.

 

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” Kara walks toward the stairs and stops before turning toward the dining room and shouting, “Goodnight!” She bounds upstairs to wishes of sweet dreams and sleeping well.

 

Once in her room, Kara looks out the window and the moon catches her eye. She walks to the window facing the house next door and opens it to lean out. If she focuses just right, her eyes can block out the light pollution and she can see the stars perfectly. Kara repositions herself so that her feet are dangling in the small space between the houses and leans against the frame of her own window. 

 

The breeze blows right at her as she stares up at the moon and the stars, forcing herself to say their names in English. The air around her smells crisp and Kara can tell that the night is getting colder. It’d be best if she closed her window and went to bed before Eliza yelled at her, but she pauses when she sees her reflection in the black window opposite of her.

 

Her eyes are wide behind her thin frames as she takes in her image. Her hair is slightly ruffled and she looks like she woke up from the dead or something, if her pale expression is anything to go by. The bangs framing her face are brushed to the side rather unevenly and her pjs and sweater clash terribly. 

 

All in all, she looks human.

 

That’s all Kara could hope for. It hurts to shut out her heritage, but she knows it’s for the best. She would be putting herself in danger if people knew.

 

That didn’t stop Kara from wanting to hold onto that part of her.

 

But for now, she is happy to be human.

 

Kara sends herself a giant smile, and she feels a little bit better. She would be okay, she would be happy. Her reflection stares back at her in the dark window and Kara wonders if anyone had ever turned a light on in the room. What room was she staring into? A bedroom? Office? At home library?

 

Deciding that she may never know, Kara stops her daydreaming and goes to bed. She pulls her feet onto the windowsill beneath her, so she’s perched like an owl. Kara takes one last look at the moon above her before glancing back at the dark window where-

 

_ -someone turned on the light. _

 

* * *

 

 

KRYPTONIAN TRANSLATIONS:

 

_ Gehd nahn :dhoia -  _ it is beautiful

  
_ Sokao-krym khap bykhuhs ehrosh voiehd -  _ please, guide me through this journey


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! sorry it took me so long to update, i went camping this weekend and couldn't post this chap! and then with the craziness of the finale last night... wow! anyway, here's chapter two!

Kara takes one last look at the moon above her before glancing back at the dark window where -

 

_ \- someone turned on the light. _

 

The light turning on shocks the unsuspecting Kryptonian so much that she ends up falling into her room and on the floor. Kara hears the boards crack beneath her and she winces before standing as quickly as possible. She whips around to face the window and finds herself staring at an equally shocked person.

 

The girl staring back at her is young, probably Kara’s age, but she holds herself in a manner that screams maturity. Her back is straight and her arms are calm at her sides, but her wide green eyes and open mouth betray her facade of calmness. Kara takes a step forward and smiles brightly at the stranger, who shakes her head and arranges her face into one of indifference.

 

Kara walks up to her open window and watches as the girl walks out of her line of sight with a suitcase in tow. She reaches out of the window and stretches her arm until she can touch her neighbor's window and taps lightly. The brunette inside the other house pops her head out to where she can see Kara and squints her eyes before walking to the window and opening it. 

 

“Hi!” Kara exclaims. The girl just stands there and purses her lips at the greeting.

 

“Hello,” she says in a stiff voice. Kara smiles warmly and tries to calm down.

 

“I’m Kara,” she offers her hand in the space between their houses and hums happily when the girl shakes her hand. Anytime Kara executes an Earth pleasantry correctly, she feels her heart swell a little bit.  _ Finally fitting in,  _ she thinks,  _ I’m finally doing it right.  _ “I’ve never had a neighbor,” she adds excitedly before the girl can offer her name. “In the two years I’ve lived here, there’s never been anyone that goes in or out of this house. It’s cool to finally have someone next door! Oh,” she pauses when she notices the girl’s eyebrows are furrowed. “Sorry,” she says sheepishly, “What’s your name?”

 

“Lena,” the girl says. Kara grins and bounces a bit before remembering the broken floorboards below her feet. That’ll be a fun one to explain. “This house has always been ours,” Lena declares. “We moved here today. Father wanted to expand his business, but the property has always been in his name.”

 

“Oh!” Kara exclaims, not quite knowing what to say or do to something like that. “That’s cool! I just moved here too. Well, not really. I’ve been here two years, but that’s not a long time,” Kara rambles as she sits back on her windowsill. Lena purses her lips and nods her head, turning away to face the desk by the window. She doesn’t bother to close the window, which Kara takes as an opportunity to keep talking.

 

“So, Lena, where are you from? I’m from K- Ukraine. What sort of business does your dad do?”

 

“I’m from Ire- from Metropolis, and my father owns LuthorCorp,” Lena says bitterly. “I’m Lena Luthor,” she adds as she forcefully deposits notebooks onto her desk. Lena doesn’t look at Kara and expects to hear the sound of the window closing because of her name, but the sound never comes.

 

“Wow! My foster parents are both scientists,” Kara offers. “Well, my foster mom is. My foster dad went missing…” Kara trails off at the thought of Jeremiah and Lena turns to this strange girl who’s offering her whole life story in the middle of the night.

 

“Listen, Kara, was it?” Lena asks. Kara nods her head and smiles up at Lena. “Listen, I’ve had a long day, I’m going to go to bed. I think you should too. Goodnight,” Lena says curtly. Kara smiles and moves her feet back into her room. 

 

“I’ve had a long day too. I’ll probably have another long one tomorrow! Goodnight!” Kara waves and Lena closes the window quickly and walks away.

 

Kara grins as she closes her own window and returns to her nest of pillows. She can’t help but think that Lena is someone who she can be friends with that doesn’t talk to her out of obligation. The Danvers took her in, Alex was told to protect her, and people at school were introduced to Kara through Alex for the sake of having people around to keep her safe. At this point in her life, most people are there out of obligation. 

 

Maybe Lena would be different.

 

* * *

 

 

When Kara wakes in the morning, she feels well rested. Napping all afternoon and then getting to bed right after dinner assured that she got more than enough sleep to recover from her headache. Not only that, but she made a new friend last night, which has her jumping out of bed.

 

Kara almost runs into her desk as she makes her way towards the window facing Lena’s room and frowns slightly when she discovers the brunette hasn’t opened her blinds up yet. She sometimes forgets that people close their curtains. On Krypton she would wake to Rao rising, and now, on Earth, she does the same to a different sun. Shrugging, Kara turns to her dresser and speed dresses into one of her lighter sweaters. On her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth, she knocks on Alex’s door and receives a grunt in response. 

 

Upon returning to her room, she glances again out of her window and sees Lena still has her curtains closed. Feeling a little less excited that before, Kara grabs her backpack from where she discarded it before her nap yesterday and bounds down the stairs. 

 

“Morning, Eliza,” she says as she slides onto a stool. Eliza smiles at Kara brightly and slides a plate of toast her way. 

 

“You’re feeling better I see,” Eliza comments. Kara grins and shoves a whole piece of toast in her mouth.

 

“I am!” Kara exclaims once she’s swallowed. “Sleeping all day yesterday let my headache go away and I got some sun without exerting energy, so that helped me recharge. And-”

 

“Hi,” Alex grumbles. “Kara, you’re very cheery. Why?” Alex reaches over and steals a piece of Kara’s toast and she smiles at Eliza.

 

“Because I met one of our new neighbors last night! Her window is right across from mine. It’s like back home- back on Krypton, I mean- I had a friend who lived in the space above ours in the central towers. Do you think I’ll be friends with her like I was with Yana?” Kara goes on, missing the way her sister tenses next to her.

 

“You met their daughter?” Eliza asks gently. “Who knows, maybe you’ll be friends. Whats her name?” Alex sends her mother a glare and turns to Kara to hear her suspicions confirmed.

 

“Lena Luthor,” Kara offers, while stuffing her mouth with another piece of toast. Alex sighs and drops her head.

 

“Kara, the Luthors are crazy. Are you sure you wanna be her friend?”

 

“Yeah!” Kara says, confused. “Just because she’s a Luthor doesn’t mean she’s crazy.”

 

“Kara is right, Alex,” Eliza admonishes. “You don’t know her, give her a chance.” Alex grunts in response and goes back upstairs to finish getting ready. “I think it’s great that you want to be her friend,” Eliza tells Kara. The blonde’s eyes light up and she grins widely at her foster mother, grateful for her support. “It’s time you made friends outside of Alex making them for you,” she quips knowingly. Kara shoots Eliza a small smile before shoving her final two pieces of toast into her mouth.

 

“Go get your sister, please,” Eliza requests as she takes Kara’s plate.

 

Running up the stairs to her sister’s room, Kara thinks to check to see if Lena opened her blinds or not. Did Lena like her? Was Kara being too clingy for only meeting her barely twelve hours ago? Earth friendships were hard for Kara.

 

Krypton was a place of science, of reasonable decisions, but Earth is one of spontaneity and emotions. Matters here are handled with reason, yes, but more often than not, emotion comes into play. On Krypton, there was no concept of subjectivity; everything was handled to the book. Rules were followed and calculations were applied. Earth, however, holds lives that struggle every day to keep their emotions out of their business. Relationships on Earth are different to Kara, and she doesn’t quite know how to handle her current one with Lena Luthor.

 

“Alex,” Kara says, knocking gently on her sister’s door. “Eliza told me to come get you, we need to leave.” Pulling her hand away, Kara beams at Alex’s door- there were no indents from her knuckles. The door swings open and Alex purses her lips into a smile before pushing past Kara.

 

“Why are you always so grumpy in the mornings?” Kara grumbles. Alex whips around and scrunches her eyebrows.

 

“Not all of us are solar powered, Kara.”

 

“But it’s a new day!” Kara declares with wide arms and a wide smile. “Nothing bad has happened yet, you’re fully rested, the sun is rising and Rao has granted you another day. If anything, it would make more sense to be grumpy in the evening,” Kara reasons with raised eyebrows as she walks backwards slowly to her door. “Unless you’re so nervous that you can’t sleep, like me yesterday, there’s no reason  _ not _ to be happy in the morning.” Kara nods at her own words before putting her hand on her door handle. Alex smiles and shakes her head before turning towards the stairs. 

 

“I’ll keep that in mind, you crazy Kryptonian.” 

 

Kara grins and opens her door, quickly crossing to the opposite corner where the window facing Lena’s is. The brunette must have opened the curtains while Kara was downstairs, but the room is now vacant. With a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders, Kara walks quickly down stairs and grabs her bag just as Eliza and Alex are making their way out of the door.

 

* * *

 

 

When Kara and Winn arrive at room 218 for math, they expect to be the first in the room like yesterday. Winn doesn’t acknowledge the other person in the room, and Kara doesn’t notice until she turns to take her seat.

 

Sitting in the seat next to hers, that was vacant yesterday, Kara finds none other than Lena Luthor, who is completely enraptured in her textbook.

 

“Lena!” Kara exclaims as she sets her bag on the floor. The brunette’s head shoots up at the sudden call of her name, and for a moment Kara thinks she looks scared. Why would Lena be scared? 

 

“Isn’t this cool?” Kara continues after Lena sends her a tight smile. “We have math together! And we sit next to each other!” Winn glances up at looks at her with concern, but Kara doesn’t break focus on Lena, for fear that the noises might overcome her.

 

“Yeah,” Lena mumbles as more people file into the room, eyeing her suspiciously. “It’s a crazy coincidence.” Kara smiles brightly at her and Lena pauses- no one ever looks at her like that. Glancing up, she sees a group of girls turn away at her gaze. Yeah. That’s how people look at her.

 

“What grade are you in? How old are you? You must be smart if you’re in calculus too. I’m fifteen and I’m a freshman,” Kara says, not noticing the way people are looking at Lena. 

 

“I’m fourteen. I’m a freshman as well,” Lena says to her book. Kara turns to the door as a group of teenagers flood in, talking loudly. She winces and turns back to Lena, who is eyeing the group with the same suspicion that they are eyeing her with. “You don’t realize who I am, do you,” Lena comments as the students whisper about her.

 

“Of course I do,” Kara says as the teacher gets up from his desk and walks to the middle of the room. “You’re Lena Luthor, my new neighbor.” The class doesn’t settle down as the teacher begins to write an equation on the board, so Lena replies.

 

“Right, a Luthor,” she snaps, grabbing a notebook from her bag. “In case you didn’t notice, people are staring. They think I’m just like my family. I suggest you try to adopt an air of indifference about me like the rest of them.” Kara flinches as the girl describes herself negatively and shakes her head.

 

“I won’t,” she declares. “I’m gonna get to know you and prove everyone wrong.” Kara sees Lena look at her out of the corner of her eye as the teacher finishes solving the equation.

 

“Well, you’re the only one who thinks so,” Lena comments under her breath. Kara knows she wasn’t meant to hear it, so she doesn’t say anything.

 

“He did the equation wrong,” Kara says. She’s had the answer written on her paper the minute the original equation was up, and her work didn’t line up with the teacher’s.

 

“What makes you think you’re right and he’s wrong,” Lena quips, glancing between Kara’s notebook and the board in the front.

 

“I just- I know I’m right,” Kara says weakly. Lena nods disbelievingly and Kara raises a tentative hand. The teacher nods at her and the class quiets down. 

 

“In the back, yes? What’s your name? What’s your question?”

 

“Um,” Kara begins quietly as everyone turns to her. She pushes her glasses up and smiles lightly. “I’m Kara Danvers, and I don’t have a question, but um,” she grimaces and glances at Lena, who is pointedly not looking at her. “You’ve solved the equation wrong on the board.” A few kids snicker and the teacher smiles at her, but it’s not a warm smile.

 

“I doubt that,” he says, before turning away.

 

“Sir,” Kara interjects, “may I um, go up to the board and show you where I think you went wrong?”

 

“This is an equation that we won’t be learning how to solve until the end of the year, but by all means. If you really want to,” he holds out a marker for Kara, who gets up and approaches the board. She can feel the students all staring at her and she catches Lena’s eye before rewriting the original equation next to the one the teacher did.

 

The teacher's expression quickly goes from doubtful to disbelieving as Kara writes out the steps to solve on the board, catching two mistakes that the teacher made. She doesn’t explain what she’s doing as she does it, but she glances at the teacher as she circles her final answer and sees that she is right.

 

“Wow,” the teacher says, moving to compare the two equations while nodding. “Quite impressive, Miss Danvers. Where did you learn to do that?”

 

“Numbers just,” she says with her accent coming through. She clears her throat and continues, “make sense to me. They always have.”  _ Even though I had to learn your different symbols.  _

 

Kara returns to her seat with thirty sets of eyes glued onto her. What was it the Danvers always say?  _ Don’t bring attention to yourself.  _

 

Crap. 

 

“Wow,” is all Lena says to her when she sits down. Kara smiles and hopes that Lena doesn’t suspect her in any way, but judging by the look on her face, she's curious. 

 

* * *

 

 

After class, when Kara and Lena part ways, Lena finds herself slightly hopeful. Maybe she’ll have a friend this year.

 

The thought trails with her all morning, probing at the back of her mind. What do friends do? What do they talk about? Everyone always says you share your secrets with a friend. Will Kara be sharing hers? Will Lena find the ability to let someone in?

 

Lunch rolls around and Lena walks slowly to the cafeteria, wanting to delay the inevitable. She’ll be sitting alone again. Like always. People look at her and laugh at her and Lena just wants to eat in peace. Too bad there’s a no food rule in the library. 

 

Lena follows the swell of students into the lunch line and sighs as a few people step hesitantly around her. No one trusts her because of her family, who sat around manipulating workers and expanding their reach. It was just business, but everyone seems to think that all Luthors are out to get people.

 

Once she pays for her salad, Lena emerges into the lunchroom. Others around her eye her warily as she tries to find an empty table. In the middle of the room, she spots Kara sitting with a few other people, an empty seat to her left. Lena stops for a moment before walking towards the table slowly, ignoring the looks people send her way. The closer she gets, the more distressed she can see Kara is. The girl on her right puts her arm around Kara’s shoulder and squeezes her into a tight side hug. 

 

Lena can’t see Kara’s face, and the other people at the table haven’t noticed her, so Lena walks around to see Kara. Immediately, she regrets it.

 

Kara is hunched over with her eyes shut tight and her hands over her ears. The group at the table next to them howls with laughter and Kara shrinks further into herself. Lena can hear the brunette holding Kara ask if she needs to go home, and Kara shakes her head before sitting up and slowly taking her hands off of her ears. 

 

Lena opens her mouth to speak but stops when she notices the pain on the blonde’s face. The brunette whips her head up at Lena’s stuttering and Kara doesn’t seem to notice her presence. She’s breathing deeply with an intense look of focus on her face and she flinches whenever anything loud happens. Lena feels a twinge of pity and sympathy pass through her at Kara’s state of obvious discomfort. 

 

“Not now, Luthor,” the girl says. Lena tears her eyes away from Kara and looks into the anger present on the tall brunette’s face. Kara doesn't seem to notice that anyone has said anything and closes in on herself again as students start to sing happy birthday. Lena glances between the two as Kara starts whispering, “call Eliza, Alex, please call Eliza.”

 

The girl- Alex- pulls out a cell phone and sends a pointed glare to Lena as Kara begins to cry.

 

“Do you want to go home?” Alex asks as the phone rings. Lena still hasn’t moved and Alex still hasn’t stopped staring at her. Lena sends a quick glare back before focusing on Kara.

 

“No, no,” she says with a sniff, “I just need to talk to her.” 

 

“Mom?” Alex says as the call connects. “Kara needs to talk to you, she’s a bit overwhelmed. She doesn’t want to come home.” Alex nods and mumbles an “I love you,” into the phone before passing it to Kara, who gets up and leaves without so much as glancing at Lena.

 

Lena watches her go before turning back to Alex, who is trying her best to look tough.

 

“Why are you still standing there? The show’s over,” Alex growls as she pops a piece of her sandwich into her mouth. Lena’s jaw drops slightly and she wants to ask so many questions. Where did Kara go? Is she alright? What was going on? Why was she so overwhelmed? 

 

Before she can ask anything, Alex raises her eyebrows and lowers her chin.

 

Lena turns and walks off, throwing her lunch in the garbage as she makes her way to the library.

 

* * *

 

 

In science, it was like Kara was a completely different person.

 

Lena walks into the room, ready to sit next to a student who is eager to sit as far away as possible from her. Instead, she sees Kara sitting at one of the tables, laughing at the brunette sitting in front of her. Lena recognizes the girl as one of the people sitting with Kara that ignored her presence.

 

After approaching the teacher and asking where her seat is, Lena heads toward the table Kara is at. The blonde smiles up at her and laughs lightly.

 

“You’re in this class, too?” Kara asks happily. “Do you sit here?” 

 

“I do,” Lena says, eyeing the brunette Kara was talking to. “I’m-”

 

“Lena Luthor, I know. I’m Maggie Sawyer,” Maggie says, holding out a hand for Lena to shake. The two purse their lips into a smile and Kara wiggles a bit in her seat. 

 

“This is so exciting!” Kara exclaims. Lena turns to her and raises an eyebrow, so Kara elaborates. “I have friends,” she says softly. Lena feels the rush of sympathy she felt for Kara during lunch and quickly tries to shoo it away. Kara may like her, but it was evident by Alex’s manner and Maggie’s stiff greeting that the people Kara is friends with didn’t want her around. She shakes her head a little and pulls out a notebook when the teacher opens a powerpoint full of notes. 

 

The whole period, Lena notices Kara mumbling in a different language every time the teacher explains something to the class. Her eyebrows are permanently arranged into a look of confusion, the crinkle between her eyes never disappearing. Kara’s notes contain drawings that make no sense and a few symbols here and there that look like they’re supposed to be words. Lena ignores it and reminds herself that there’s a lot she doesn’t know about Kara.

 

A lot that she probably shouldn’t try to find out.

 

Lillian reminds her every day that the people she makes friends with should be carefully calculated. If Lena wants power, she should associate with power. Too often would Lillian put Lena in a room with a few other daughters of wealthy people and expect her to gossip.

 

Lena isn’t interested in gossip. Never has been. The girls all around her would ask her opinion and she would be pulled from thoughts on how to make a machine work faster or the plans for something she wanted to build. They all mocked her for having the mind of a scientist rather than the mind of a socialite. 

 

Kara is not power. Kara is pink sweaters and worn jeans and symbols written into a journal. Kara is everything that Lena shouldn’t make friends with. She isn’t strong and powerful in the business world. She isn’t invited to galas that exist with the purpose of raising money for a selfish cause. 

 

Kara is the opposite of corporate, and Lena shouldn’t want to be friends with her.

 

At least that’s what she tells herself.

 

Because Kara _is_  pink sweaters and worn jeans. Kara is strange symbols that probably hold significance to her, if the way her pen glides delicately to form them is anything to go off of. Kara is everything that most people would want in a friend, as long as they didn’t have Lillian as a mother.

 

The bell rings loudly in their ears and Kara grimaces before turning with a smile toward Lena. They still have another period of the class, but the time change between periods allows them a short break. Kara closes her notebook as Lena finishes scribbling the last of the notes on her page.

 

“How has your day been so far?” Kara asks warmly as a few students get up and walk into the hall.

 

“Don’t you want to go walk around?” Lena asks. “I imagine you’re the type that can’t sit for long.”

 

“You’re right,” Kara admits. “I don’t like being still for very long. But at school, it just gets too loud in the hallways sometimes.” Kara fiddles with her notebook and Lena regards her carefully. “I avoid the halls and the noise if it’s possible.” 

 

Lena pauses as Kara pushes her glasses onto the top of her head and focuses her eyes on a spot on the wall. Kara squints slightly and takes a deep breath before setting her glasses back on her nose with a smile. 

 

“It takes some getting used to, being in a big school like this,” Kara says. Lena is in awe at how easily Kara spills what she’s feeling. Would Lena ever be like that? Will she ever be comfortable with voicing the thoughts bouncing around in her head?

 

“Back home,” Kara continues, “I wasn’t even in school. My parents taught me everything I knew, and a tutor used to come and teach me about the things my parents couldn’t. Which wasn’t much- a judge and a scientist of their level knew almost everything there was to know,” she says with a sad smile, the pride evident on her face. “They were amazing,” she whispers with eyes glazed over. “But,” she exclaims, adopting a happier look as she turns to Lena. “The first time I stepped foot in a school was seventh grade. The only thing I had trouble with was the language and the noise. So I like to stay places that are quiet.”

 

Kara feels a slight pang at the remembrance of her parents. She cringes slightly as her words only scrape the surface of everything she’s telling Lena, but she knows it can’t be any other way.

 

At least, not for now.

 

Lena is regarding her with pinched eyebrows and a concerned frown when students start to pile back into the room. Kara purses her lips into a smile at Lena before re-opening her notebook, grimacing as the bell rings, signalling the start of class.

 

The teacher does a demonstration that enraptures Kara, who giggles when the chemicals bubble over the test tube they’re in. Lena notices she speaks gently in that odd language again as she shakes her head.

  
Every time Kara tells her something personal, Lena feels herself understanding the blonde less and less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (slight spoilers if you didn't watch the ep!)
> 
> for those who watched it: what did you think!? theres some parts i loved and some i didn't, but over all i thought it was really good! people need to start thanking lena for saving the planet cause im pretty sure we'd all be dead without her. (also? lead poisoning is a thing... pretty sure the people of earth will be affected by the lead in the atmosphere too?) but whatever mon-el is gone thats all i wanted!
> 
> im ALMOST done with school, but then i start work the very next day :( but fear not! i'll still write! thanks for reading :))


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i bet you guys think i am the worst author ever oh my gosh im so sorry!! i had finals and started work this past week and its craaazy so im working to get in the groove of things!! im just aout to be so busy every day so i think im gonna start writing and posting on the weekends??? but dont hold me to that. fear not! this story has not been abandoned :)

The second her bedroom door closes, Lena becomes a different person. 

 

The click of the latch lets her know that her mother can no longer see her, that the threat of being nit-picked has gone away for now. Her bedrooms have always been her safe haven, the place where not even Lex was allowed. There were plenty of other rooms in the house for Lena to interact with her family, so her rooms was hers and hers alone.

 

She opens her windows to get fresh air and silently curses her family when the view is mostly just another house. Her parents  _ need _ for space forced them to expand on the house in every direction, even towards the neighbor's house. It was now so close that there was about a foot of space between the two dwellings near the front of the house, hence why this was Lena’s room. The rest of the rooms had good views, but this one directly faced another house. 

 

Lena was no fool. She knew she wasn’t the family favorite. Lionel was kind to her when he was home and Lillian wasn’t around, but as soon as the woman entered the house he was cold. Never too cold to give her smiles and gentle pats on the shoulder, though. Lillian controlled what happened, and it never favored Lena. Always Lex.

 

Lex. Her brother who she hadn’t seen in over two years because of his stupid Smallville LuthorCorp plant. Her brother who  _ used _ to be around to help her when Lillian’s scrutiny became too much. Her brother who was adored by Lillian and trusted by Lionel.

 

Sure, Lionel sometimes would bring her into Luthor-Corp, but that was just because she was smart. A genius even. He would stick her on the floor with machines and tell her to take them apart and put them back together, knowing it would keep her busy as well as increase her skills.

 

But other than Lionel’s less than generous care and Lex’s frequently absent presence in her life, Lena knows she isn’t the favorite.

 

Which is why her room is so important to her.

 

She sits down at the deep brown desk near the window facing the other house - Kara’s room, if she remembered correctly, not that she’s trying to remember or anything - and starts to pull out her books to work. Having only been the second day of school, she didn’t have much work. But she had to work. If she wasn’t studying in some way and Lillian called her down for dinner, she’d have no excuse to not come to dinner.

 

Seeing as it was only the beginning of the year, Lena discovers she has no homework for the night. Not letting this defeat her, she pulls out her English reading list and sneaks off to the home library to see if she has any of the books on it. 

 

Opening her door is slightly difficult with six books in her hand (okay, maybe she grabbed a few more than she needed), but Lena manages to balance the books in one hand so she can open it. The books begin to tumble and Lena ungracefully deposits them in a haphazard pile on her desk. She freezes when she hears a giggle and looks toward her window to see none other than Kara Danvers.

 

“What’s so funny?” she asks tersely. She may like that Kara doesn’t seem to care she’s a Luthor, but that doesn’t mean she’s okay with being laughed at. 

 

“Nothing, it’s just nice to know someone like you is clumsy like me.”

 

“Someone like me?” Lena asks with a sneer. “A Luthor?”

 

In the week that Lena and Kara have been talking, Kara’s been warned many times about why she should stay away from Lena. Most of them being from Alex. Most of them being something along the lines of “because she’s a Luthor.” The concept doesn’t sit well with Kara.

 

“No,” she starts, “someone hu- oh.” Kara brings a hand up to cover her mouth briefly and tries to shake off the almost slip-up. “Someone who normally seems so put together.” She gives herself a mental high five for the quick save and smiles at Lena, who doesn’t seem very convinced. 

 

“Yes, well,” Lena huffs, “we all have our moments.” She pulls a book in front of her in the hopes that Kara will take the hint and leave her alone. As she opens the title page, she sees Kara sit on her windowsill and swing her legs out so they hang in between the houses. 

 

Kara opens her mouth to speak right as a loud bang comes from somewhere in Lena’s room. The brunette flinches slightly, used to this happening, but Kara jumps so hard she almost falls out of the window. Lena watches her bring her hands to her ears and wince slightly.

 

“What  _ was _ that?” Kara asks.

 

“Sorry, it’s just Frank. I forgot I left my door open, he must have snuck in,” she explains, standing up to close her door. “He doesn’t know how to leave things on their shelves.”

 

“Frank?” Kara asks with a crinkle between her eyebrows. Lena sits back down at her desk and sighs when an orange tabby jumps up to sit on her books.

 

“My cat,” Lena offers post facto. Kara’s face lights up and she watches Frank as he pushes a book around before Lena snatches it away.

 

“I love cats!” Kara exclaims. “I also love dogs. There are so many cool mammals here,” she sighs. Lena sends her an incredulous look and Kara’s eyes widen. “I just- I mean there are such cool pets. In my c-country we didn’t really have pets. There were animals, we just didn’t have pets.” 

 

Lena nods her head at the odd explanation and tries to ignore the way Kara talks about her country in the past tense. Before she has the opportunity to dwell too much on it, Kara pipes up again.

 

“Why’d you name him Frank?”

 

“After Frankenstein,” Lena says. Kara stares at her blankly. “The scientist? The book by Mary Shelley?” Kara shakes her head slowly and purses her lips. “Well,” Lena sighs, “you’ll read it eventually. It’s in the curriculum.” Lena gives Kara a strained smile and turns back to the book in front of her when Kara is silent. Scrunching her face slightly in confusion, Lena reaches into her bag and grabs a highlighter to mark her book. 

 

“Do you have a copy?” Kara asks after ten minutes. Lena starts slightly, forgetting Kara was there, and turns to look at the girl.

 

“What?” 

 

“Do you have a copy?” Kara repeats. “Of Frankenstein. If I have to read it, I might as well get a head start,” Kara reasons. Lena eyes her bookshelf and notes her tattered copy of the book.

 

“Um,” she falters. Lena looks back at Kara, sees the hopeful expression on her face, and sighs. “Let me go check.” 

 

“Okay!”

 

Lena sneaks out of her room and closes the door tight behind her, not wanting Kara to see the overly extravagant halls that have no use being in Midvale. She  _ knows _ she has another copy of Frankenstein. It’s the one she read when she read the book for the first time before buying her own copy. She stops short of the hall that leads to the library when she hears Lillian talking and waits. 

 

“Lex, you always knew how to solve any problem. This is no different. Perhaps you would find an answer in returning home?” Lillian’s voice echoes down the hall as she walks away from the library. Lena rolls her eyes, Lillian always tries to get Lex to come home any time he asks for help. 

 

Rushing into the library, Lena heads straight toward the shelf she knows holds the book (and if she picks up another book she didn’t need along the way, no one had to know). 

 

When she opens the door to her room, she freezes at the sight. Kara has her feet propped up on Lena’s open window and has Frank rubbing against her leg.

 

“He never does that,” Lena mumbles. Kara looks up at her and pulls her feet off of her window and scratches the cat’s head. 

 

“Really?” Kara asks. “He’s a little sweetheart, that’s hard to believe.”

 

“You wouldn’t be saying that if he was knocking over your belongings in the middle of the night.” Lena sets down the extra book she picked up with the pile still messily sitting on her desk.  She walks over to Kara and passes the book through the window. “Here,” she says as Kara reaches out and takes the slightly worn book. 

 

“Thanks! I’ll get it back to you tomorrow,” Kara promises, already opening the book to inspect the pages.

 

“Oh, you don’t have to rush. If you need to take a while to read it that’s alright.”

 

“No, I should be done with it soon. It’s not that big,” Kara says with a bright smile. Lena returns to her desk and opens the book to the page she left off. 

 

Lena finds herself lost in the story and suddenly is a hundred pages in when she hears a gasp come from her window. She completely forgot Kara was there, but it seems the blonde decided to take this opportunity to read the book. Lena smiles slightly when she takes in the complete look of awe on Kara’s face.

 

“Are you liking it?” Lena asks. The question shocks Kara, who snaps her head up to look at Lena with wide eyes.

 

“I don’t know what half of the words mean but I get the story and I love it!” Kara exclaims before turning back to the book. Lena shakes her head and watches Kara for a moment.

 

It’s slightly unsettling to her, the way Kara has become so comfortable with her in the span of five days. Somewhere in the back of Lena’s mind, a voice is screaming at her to stop, stop while she’s ahead. There’s no need to get hurt in the long run.

 

But then Kara gasps again and whips her head up to find Lena’s eyes. The second Lena opens her mouth to ask what was wrong, Kara shouts.

 

“The  _ monster  _ did it! I’m right, right?”

 

“Keep reading and find out,” is all Lena offers. 

 

The door to Kara’s room opens and a skeptical voice drifts out.

 

“Kara? Dinner’s ready,” Alex says as she walks over to the window. “What are you doing?” Alex asks, making eye contact with Lena.

 

“We were reading,” Kara says, like it’s the most normal thing in the whole world. Alex nods slowly as Kara looks around for something to use as a bookmark. Lena pulls a sticky note off of the stack she has on her desk and walks to her window. 

 

“Here,” she says, handing Kara the sticky note. Kara eagerly puts the mark in her book and reaches out to pet Frank, who decided to stay with Kara in the window.

 

“By Frank!” Kara exclaims. Alex watches from behind Kara with scrunched eyebrows, silently taking in the scene. Kara stands up and sets her book on her windowsill and closes the screen.

 

“See you later, Lena!” Kara walks out of her room, dragging Alex with her, leaving Lena alone with Frank. She pauses a moment to think,  _ what the hell just happened?  _ Kara bursts back into the room and rushes toward the window.

 

“Thanks again for letting me borrow your book!” Kara says before rushing off again.

 

Again,  _ what the hell? _

 

* * *

 

 

A knock on her door brings Lena out of her reverie. 

 

She freezes immediately, hoping it isn’t Lillian on the other side of the door. 

 

“Yes?” Lena asks, hoping her voice is stable. The door opens and she sighs in relief at the sight of Lionel standing there instead of Lillian. “You’re home early!” Lena exclaims. She rushes over to him to hug him tightly, but notices the cane he is leaning on.

 

Lionel sets aside the cane and holds his arms open for Lena, who goes to hug him with much less force that she originally planned. The way he hugs her makes her forget for a moment. Forget she’s a Luthor, forget he’s a bossy CEO, forget that he isn’t her real father. Lionel Luthor always made her feel good enough.

 

Too bad he was almost never home. 

 

“I am,” he says, hugging her tighter for a moment. Lena pulls away from him and smiles, but it falls when Lionel reaches to grab the cane. “But only for a little bit. The new workers are somewhat incompetent, dear. They need all of the instruction they can get.”

 

“Why do you have to do it?” Lena asks bitterly. It wasn’t fair that she was left alone with Lillian while Lex was in Smallville and Lionel was working.

 

“Because we both know I’m the best person to do it. You must always be prepared, Lena, and if that means training imbeciles to do their jobs, then so be it.”

 

“I suppose,” Lena offers with a sigh. She sits down at her desk and Lionel hobbles over to her bed to sit. “It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it,” she whispers. Lionel smiles at her and sighs.

 

“Not worse. I’ve just been feeling a little overworked lately. There’s nothing to worry about. The doctors think they’ve come up with a solution,” Lionel declares. He knows that it won’t work, and so does Lena, but the possibility of success is enough for now. 

 

“I hear that you’ve started at your new school, how is it?”

 

“It’s alright,” Lena offers. “The classes are good enough and the library is lovely.” She leaves out the way people treat her on purpose and hopes that Lionel doesn’t ask her about it.

 

But of course, the universe hates her, he asks.

 

“And the students?” Lena lets out a huff and rolls her eyes.

 

“No different, they all stare,” Lena says as her eyes drift to her window. “Except for one,” she adds. She turns to Lionel with a confused expression. “Our neighbor.”

 

“That’s good,” Lionel says softly. “Don’t listen to your mother about who and who not to be friends with. Befriend those who are kind to you, maybe they will prove themselves to be trustworthy people.”

 

“It’s kind of hard not to listen to her when she’s the only one here.”

 

Lionel gets up and walks over to Lena. He sets a hand on her shoulder and she drags her eyes up to meet his.

 

“You’re smart, Lena. A genius. You know what’s best for you more than anyone else,” Lionel says. His pager dings and he pulls it out of his pocket. When he sees the notification, he sighs and looks at Lena. “I’m off again,” he says with pursed lips. Lena stands and pulls her eyebrows together.

 

“You’ve not been here ten minutes, father, do you really have to go?” 

 

“A company can’t run itself. I’ll be back before you know it. Guess where I’m going this time?”

 

“Where?”

 

“Ireland,” Lionel announces. Lena smiles but tilts her head in confusion. “One of our business partners has a new agreement he wants me to look at,” Lionel says as explanation.

 

“That’ll be fun,” Lena says with a bit of jealousy. Lionel holds open his arms once more and Lena walks forward to give him a hug. He leans down slightly and wraps his arm not holding his cane around her and Lena sighs. Lionel and Lex are the only people she ever felt comfortable hugging, and now she barely gets the chance to hug either of them. 

 

Lionel pulls away when his pager dings again and smiles at Lena as he walks out of her door, closing it after him. Lena turns her head to look out her window and sees her copy of Frankenstein still perched on Kara’s windowsill. Taking a deep breath in, she tries to not be angry or frustrated. But, if she throws a pillow against as hard as she can the wall while cursing her life, no one has to know.

 

* * *

 

 

Lena walks into math, expecting to be the only one in the room. Instead, she finds Kara. It wasn’t normal for Kara and Winn to show up around the same time Lena did, but Winn wasn’t with Kara this time. Kara had her head in her hands and was taking deep breaths when Lena approached.

 

“Hello, Kara,” Lena says quietly as she sits. Kara opens her eyes and sits up with a grimace on her face.

 

“ _ Ehrosh :bem,”  _ Kara mumbles as she leans down to get her books. Lena pauses for a beat, and Kara freezes. “Umm,” Kara starts as she whips around to face Lena, “Good morning?” Kara says like a question with a hopeful smile. Lena nods slowly and smiles. 

 

“Hi,” she says, choosing to ignore what Kara said. If the way the blonde sighs and mumbles “thank Rao,” is anything to go off of, Lena reacted the way Kara hoped she would. 

 

“You’re here early,” Lena says quietly. “Where’s Winn?” 

 

“I don’t know,” Kara says with a frown. “I don’t think he’s here today.”

 

“Oh,” Lena says. “That’s unfortunate.” She continues pulling things out of her bag, setting them up on her desk. She pulls out her book that she was reading the previous night and Kara perks up. 

 

“Hey! I brought my book too!” Kara pulls out Lena’s copy of Frankenstein and smiles at her. The door slams open and Kara’s smile falls as she winces. Lena smiles gently at her and opens her book to where she left off. 

 

“Do you wanna read together til class starts?” Lena asks softly. Kara looks at her gratefully and nods her head. 

 

Lena puts her book away when the bell rings, but Kara keeps reading. The teacher doesn’t yell at Kara at all. In fact, he doesn’t even bat an eye.

 

“Are you going to need the notes?” Lena asks after class, slightly confused at how her friend felt comfortable enough to not pay attention. 

 

“Oh, no,” Kara brushes off as the bell rings, signaling class change. “Hang on,” she says as she walks up to the teachers desk. Lena hears them have a hushed conversation, in which the teacher eyes Kara with concern. He hands her a paper and Kara puts it in her bag before walking back over to Lena. 

 

Lena  _ really _ wants to ask Kara what that was about, but she also knows she shouldn’t. It might be a private manner, and Luthors are always polite. Instead, she smiles and walks with Kara to the door. 

 

“Thanks for the offer,” Kara says on their way out. “For notes, I mean. All of my teachers know that I have sup- sensory issues,” Kara quickly says, hoping to skate over the slip. “Eliza just has to call in the morning and let them know it’s a bad day and my teachers will all have notes for me.”

 

“That’s quite convenient,” Lena comments, nodding as she takes in the new information. Lena has long since stopped trying to avoid Kara, seeing as the girl somewhat forces herself into Lena’s life. It’s not like Lena was ever looking for a friend (okay, maybe she was, but that’s beside the point), she just found one.

 

“Yeah, it helps a lot. Sometimes, everything is just too loud.” Kara makes a face and looks at Lena with a grimace. “I can’t think straight.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Lena says, unsure at what to say.

 

“Nah, it’s okay. I’m learning to work through it.” Kara starts turning a corner to go to her next class and Lena doesn’t make to follow. “Oh! I guess this is where we part ways. See ya!”

 

After Lena waves slightly, Kara bounds down the hall. Lena sighs and continues walking, doing her best to ignore the way people are looking at her. 

 

* * *

 

 

Lena rips open her door and closes her eyes as her mother’s shouts follow her upstairs.

 

“You’ll never be able to run the company unless you come to the galas, Lena, they are more important than you know!” Lillian’s voice floats toward her. Lena takes a deep breath about to walk into her room and ignore Lillian. She hears an exasperated, “Lena!” and snaps.

 

“Yes mother, I heard, but we both know very well I’m never going to run the company if you have any say in it. After all,” she shouts turning to face the stairwell, “I’m not a  _ real  _ Luthor!” Lena slams the door and throws her bag on the ground before looking up. Her shoulders deflate as she takes in the sight in her open window.

 

Kara is propped up with her feet on Lena’s windowsill, much like she was the day before, with  _ Frankenstein _ resting on her knees. She’s watching Lena with concern, but the brunette doesn’t miss the fact that Kara’s face is contorted in pain as she covers her ears.

 

“You okay?” Kara asks quietly.

 

“I should be asking you that,” Lena responds, equally as quiet. She walks over to her desk and drags her chair to the window. “Sorry about your ears. Are they any better?”

 

“Not really,” Kara admits, pulling her hands away from her head and her feet away from Lena’s window. “It’s quiet out here though, so I come sit here normally.”

 

“It’s quiet when I’m not shouting at my mother,” Lena remarks bitterly.

 

“What was that about?” Kara asks gently.

 

“She’s throwing a fundraiser that she wants me to attend, but I hate galas. I told her I wasn’t going,” Lena says, fiddling with the buttons on her shirt. She looks up when Kara is silent and notices the blond focusing on her hands.

 

“Do you always wear those?” Kara asks abruptly. Lena stops and pulls her eyebrows together in confusion.

 

“W-what?” Lena sputters.

 

“Those shirts, you always wear them.”

 

“Button ups?” Lena asks, looking down at her shirt. She shrugs and looks back up to Kara. “I guess I do. It’s kind of like an unspoken rule, I always have to dress nicely. Why?”

 

“I like it,” Kara says with a smile. “We mostly wore dresses back home, we didn’t have anything like button ups.” 

 

“What did the dresses look like?” Lena asks tentatively. Kara breaks into a huge grin at the question and sits up a bit straighter, her arms coming up to gesture wildly.

 

“They were  _ long _ ,” Kara starts off with. “They were all different colors and they all came down to your ankles. Most of them were long sleeved,” she exclaims, gesturing on her arms and legs where the clothing would end. Lena smiles as Kara goes on. “We wore white dresses for ceremonies, all except one, which we wore dark green for. Everyone always wore their house crest on their clothes, either right above their heart or in the middle of their chest. It was beautiful,” she says dreamily. 

 

“Wow,” Lena says, drawing a blank on what to say next. 

 

“A gala is like…” Kara trails off. “A party?”

 

“Yeah,” Lena sighs, “but not a fun one. Just too many businessmen crammed into one room, all trying to get something from one another.”

 

“We had big parties like that,” Kara mumbles. “They were fun though. Do you have to go?”

 

“Even if I don’t want to, I guess I do.” 

 

“What do you have to wear?” Kara asks, setting her book down on the windowsill.

 

“A dress,” Lena says, setting her chin in her hand. “Probably a long one. Maybe it’ll look like the dresses you had back home,” Lena comments absently. She plays with the buttons on her shirt again and thinks that she said something wrong when Kara went silent, but when she looks up, she knows it was the complete opposite. 

 

Kara is staring at her with the widest smile and tears in her eyes.

 

“Yeah,” she whispers, “maybe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehrosh :bem -- greetings (and the lil colon represents a nasal-y noise)
> 
> !!!!!! yup!! but seriously its wild having a 9-5 job..... but i make MONEY so i dont mind too much, and its fun! but i barely have any time to do anything other than work. i'm tryin my best pals.... I LOVE YOU ALL thank you for the kudos and the comments they mean the world to me!!!


	4. chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im literally the worst person alive im so sorry!!! the last two weeks have been crazy bust bc im at work until 4:30 and then I go to band camp for school until nine and i dont have any time ever but thats gonna be done once the fourth of july is over so HOPEFULLY my life will calm down and I can post more. im sorry if there are any typos, im just stupid and dont wanna beta this rn bc i feel so bad and i just finished this like two seconds before im posting it so!!!! here ya go!

“What’s your favorite type of candy?”

 

Kara’s abrupt question startles Lena out of her book, and she looks up to see Kara watching her with a crinkle between her eyebrows.

 

It’s more than normal for Kara to talk during their reading sessions, but it still startles her. They became a frequent occasion after Kara finished _Frankenstein_ and wanted to read everything Lena has to recommend. Lena finds that she is extremely grateful for the company-- something she wasn’t expecting at all.

 

The first time Kara read _The Hobbit,_ she kept gasping and whispering and giggling as she read. At first, it annoyed Lena slightly (but she would never say, it was easy to ruin Kara’s mood and Lena hated seeing her new friend sad). The next time she tried to read without Kara there, Lena found it too quiet to concentrate. Which never _ever_ happened to her.

 

“What?” Lena asks.

 

(Another new thing: Lena had never been so confused in her whole life. Some of the things Kara says to her made no sense.

 

 _‘Lena, this is so unrealistic! Elves aren’t like this at all, they are_ much _more polite.’_

 

_‘Space travel is way easier than they make it out to be, Lena. They are over complicating it.’_

 

 _‘What do you_ mean _you don’t have flying horses here? Aren’t those just like birds but bigger?’_ )

 

“What’s your favorite type of candy?” Kara repeats.

 

“Umm,” Lena falters, “I don’t know?”

 

“What do you mean?” Kara asks, putting her sticky note in her book and setting it down.

 

“I haven’t had a lot of candy,” Lena shrugs, looking at up Kara. She tilts her head in question when she takes in Kara’s horrified expression.

 

“ _You haven’t had a lot of candy?_ ” Kara asks, her eyes popping out of their socket. “We have to fix that,” Kara announces, getting up and running to her desk. Lena watches as the blonde pulls out a notebook (are those _unicorns_ on the cover?) and a pen before returning to her perch on the windowsill.

 

“Okay!” Kara exclaims, opening the notebook to a random page. She falters when the page is full of the symbols Lena saw during science a few weeks ago. She looks up, prepared to see Lena eyeing the notebook, but instead finds her smiling slightly, not paying attention to the symbols. Kara sighs and draws a line to separate her previous notes and the blank half of the page before looking back up to Lena.

 

“Do you like peanut butter? Sour things? Chocolate? We’ll start at the basics, I guess.” Kara begins to write down candy brands and different flavors while Lena watches.

 

“You sure know what you’re doing, don’t you?” Lena remarks. Kara smiles at her briefly and continues writing.

 

“In my two years here, I’ve become _quite_ the candy aficionado,” Kara announces, looking very proud of herself. She looks up at Lena and falters, quickly providing a cover-up. “We didn’t really have candy back home. Not like this stuff, at least.”

 

“Things must be really different here, huh,” Lena says, leaning back in her chair. Kara sets her notebook down, leaving it open to the page with her candy recommendations.

 

“You have _no_ idea,” Kara sighs, raising her eyebrows before settling back in her seat. Neither of them say anything for a moment. Lena wonders what Kara is hiding from her, but decides then and there to not say _anything_ until Kara does. She can’t ruin the one good thing that’s happened to her. She can’t. Just because she _wants_ to know something about her new friend doesn’t mean that she gets to force the girl to tell her.

 

Kara swings her feet out so they hang in between the girls’ rooms. She watches Lena’s face as she thinks, and finds herself lost in thought too. _Why_ does she slip up _so much_ around Lena? The Danvers always tell her to be careful about saying things that might cause suspicion. All of that flies out the window with Lena. She’ll just have to be more careful! Right. _Think before you speak, Kara._

 

“So!” Kara exclaims, pulling herself and Lena out of their respective reveries. “Where do you wanna start? Do you like peanut butter?” Lena tilts her head and thinks for a moment, before slowly shaking her head.

 

“What?” Kara asks. “You don’t like it? Okay, we can start-”

 

“No, I don’t know if I like it. I’ve never really had it.”

 

“ _What!?”_

 

“What?”

 

“You’ve _never_ had peanut butter?” Kara’s eyes are back to popping out of their sockets as Lena shakes her head. “Wow, okay. We’re gonna change-”

 

“Kara?”

 

Both Lena and Kara turn to the voice coming from the blonde’s door. Eliza stands there, eyes flickering between Kara, Lena, Kara’s notebook, and back again. Lena sits up straighter in her seat and Kara smiles warmly.

 

“Hi Eliza,” she says sweetly, “what’s up?” Eliza smiles at Lena before turning to Kara.

 

“It’s getting late sweetie. I think you should go to bed so you don’t have another bad day tomorrow.” Kara lets out a sigh and pulls one leg back into her room.

 

“Yeah,” she says, glancing at the sunset visible to her right. “I guess you’re right,” she says, letting out another sigh. Lena glances down at her hands while Kara stares at the sunset and Eliza stands in the blonde’s room. She looks up when Kara shifts a little bit to find the girl looking at her.

 

“Eliza thinks my bad days are because I don’t sleep enough,” Kara explains, as though the woman isn’t right behind her. Lena glances up at Eliza and finds her struggling to repress a laugh. “I try to tell her that’s not true and that my sleep has nothing to do with my ears, but she doesn’t believe me.” Kara gets up and shakes her head as she closes the screen on her window. “I’ll see you tomorrow Lena! Goodnight,” she says with a bright smile.

 

“Goodnight, Kara,” Lena says right before the window shuts. With a sigh, the brunette pulls her chair back to her desk and sets down her book. She looks back up at her window to see Eliza holding Kara’s unicorn notebook and pointing to the strange symbols. Judging by the stern look on her face and the way Kara’s shoulders are sagged, the blonde is getting yelled at.

 

_Don’t pry, Lena._

 

She spares a last look into Kara’s room as she shuts her blinds and sees Eliza hugging a crying Kara.

 

_Don’t pry._

 

* * *

 

 

“Eliza, please, they weren’t anything important. I wasn’t gonna show anyone!”

 

“But Kara, sweetie, you _did._ You showed Lena. I know you don’t see the point in hiding, but it’s for your safety.” Eliza points at the writing again and schools her face into a stern look. It was always so hard to yell at Kara. “You cannot show _anyone_ this notebook, okay?”

 

Kara looks up from her fiddling hands as tears begin to fill her eyes.

 

“You mean I don’t have to stop writing it?”

 

“Oh, honey, no,” Eliza says, setting the notebook down. “You can keep writing. I’d never keep that from you,” she says pulling Kara up into a hug. “You just can’t show anyone. Do you understand?” Eliza asks, making sure to keep her voice soft and to fill it with love.

 

“I do,” Kara whispers, hugging Eliza loosely.

 

 _I don’t,_ she thinks, _but it’s not like that matters._

 

* * *

 

 

Kara wakes up with the sun.

 

She rises as the first rays peak over her window into her room. The light dances across her face and the warmth of her recharging cells naturally wake her up.

 

Alex always teases that Kara is like a farmer, rising and setting with the sun as it dictates her work day. In her defense, it’s not easy to gain your energy from the sun when the sun has set.

 

Throwing on a pair of jeans and a striped t-shirt, Kara checks the clock on her bedside table. It reads 5:53, and Kara counts in her head. _An hour and seven minutes until the alarm goes off. That’s enough time to go to the store._

 

She rummages around her room to find some money and stuff it in her pockets. Kara pulls on her sneakers and grabs her glasses on her way out the door.

 

Closing it behind her, Kara opts to float down the stairs in order to not wake her family. She gently opens and closes the door as she exits the house, running off to the nearest 24 hour store at a human speed.

 

The clerk at the counter is a few years older than her, and he moves slowly as he scans the M&Ms. She smiles at him as she hands him the wad of cash and picks up the bag, running out the second the boy tells her she has no change and to have a nice day.

 

Kara returns home with fifteen minutes to spare until her alarm goes off. She closes the door behind her and and lifts off the ground to float up the stairs.

 

“Kara?”  


At the sound of Eliza’s voice, Kara instantly returns to the ground. She sets down her bag from the store and walks to the kitchen to find Eliza sitting at the island, holding a mug of coffee and watching the door.

 

“Good morning!” Kara says cheerily, hoping to distract Eliza.

 

(It doesn’t work.)

 

“Why were you up and out so early?” Eliza asks, patting the stool next to her. Kara sits and fiddles with her glasses, not looking Eliza in the eye.

 

“Lena has never had peanut butter M&Ms,” Kara mumbles.

 

“So you went out to buy M&Ms at six in the morning?”

 

“Yeah?” Kara says tentatively. Eliza raises her eyebrows at Kara and the blonde squirms in her seat under the intense gaze. _I won’t talk, I won’t talk, I won’t-_

 

“Eliza, she’s never even had peanut butter!” Kara whines, throwing her hands in the air. “I had to!”

 

“You didn’t _have_ to,” Eliza says slowly, “but I guess it’s alright that you did.” Kara beams at this and is about to get up when Eliza holds up her hand. “As long as you got to and from the store by completely human methods?”

 

“Yes,” Kara huffs, walking out of the kitchen. “I’ll go wake Alex.”

 

Kara returns to her room after retrieving her bag and waking Alex. She rushes to the window and leans out to knock on the window. After waiting a moment and getting no reply, Kara opens the screen covering the open bottom half of the window and tosses the bag of M&Ms inside for Lena to find.

 

* * *

 

 

Lena walks into math and sees Kara and Winn munching happily on M&Ms. Lena reaches into her coat pocket as she walks toward the desks and pulls out her own bag.

 

“I’m correct to assume this is your doing?” Lena asks as she sits next to Kara. The blonde smiles brightly at Lena and pops two candies into her mouth.

 

“Have you tried them yet?”

 

“No, I was going to wait to try them with you,” Lena reveals. Kara’s smile doubles in size and brightness and Lena briefly wonders how her face hasn’t split in two yet.

 

“Well?” Kara asks.

 

“Well, what?”

 

“Well, what are you waiting for! I’m here, you’re here, try it!”

 

“If you don’t like them,” Winn starts with a mouthful of candy, “I don’t think we can be friends anymore.” Lena’s smile falls and her eyes flash between Winn and Kara, both of whom are giggling. Lena forces a smile and reaches forward, prepared to lie for her life if it means not losing her friends.

 

“Woah, hey,” Winn says once he looks at Lena again and sees the look on her face. “I was kidding about that. I’ll still be your friend if you don’t like them.” Lena blushes furiously at the fact that she jumped to conclusions and brushes it off.

 

“Oh, I know,” she says reaching for the candy. Kara puts her hand on Lena’s arm and squeezes it. Lena freezes and schools her face into one of neutrality. She looks up at Kara and sees genuine sympathy in her eyes.

 

“If you don’t like them, I _will_ take the bag she bought you though,” Winn offers with a slight chuckle.

 

“No!” Kara exclaims. “She’ll like them.” Kara nods furiously as Winn holds his hands up in surrender. Lena purses her lips into a smile and grabs an M&M, putting it in her mouth as more students come into the room.

 

Feeling both Kara’s and Winn’s eyes on her, Lena chews slowly, trying to prolong the moment. Her actions get the desired effect and Kara starts squirming in her seat.

 

“Lena,” Kara whines, dragging out the ‘a’. “What do you think?”

 

“Well,” Lena begins, grabbing a handful of candy, “the mix of chocolate and peanut butter is smart, and the ratio is perfect. Just the right amount of chocolate, just the right amount of peanut butter.” Lena smiles as Kara groans and Winn puts his head in his hands.

 

“How did you manage to find someone more analytical than me, Kar?” Winn asks, shaking his head.

 

“So you like it?” Kara asks.

 

“I do,” Lena replies, popping another piece into her mouth. “But take them away from me,” she says, pushing her bag towards Kara.

 

“What?” Kara asks, pushing the bag back. “Why?”

 

“I really really like them,” Lena says, grabbing more, “I’ll eat them all if I have my own bag.”

 

“Lena, that’s the whole point!” Kara startles at the sound of the bell and grimaces at Lena as she grabs her notebook and pencil. “You’re supposed to eat the whole bag if you like it,” Kara whispers. Lena nods and pulls out her notebook too, shaking her head slightly.

 

Who knew someone could be so serious about candy?

 

* * *

 

 

“How do you feel about sour stuff?”

 

Lena huffs and sets down her book after being interrupted for the fifth time in ten minutes. Kara was recompiling her list of candy for Lena to try (on a different page than the previous one, Lena noticed the _distinct absence_ of the symbols) and she kept asking questions.

 

“Kara, just have me try whatever you want me to try. Honestly, I’m willing to try what you want me to try.” Both their feet were hanging in between their houses and Kara gently kicks Lena’s foot.

 

“Hey, I need input here or this isn’t gonna work!”

 

“Honestly Kara, I don’t know what I do or don’t like, candy-wise,” Lena says with a sigh. “Just… pick what you think I would like?” Lena smiles slightly and raises her eyebrow in question. Kara beams at her and starts nodding erratically.

 

“Yes, okay, yup. I’ll pick what I think you’d like,” Kara says, starting to write things down. “I can’t believe you trust me enough to let me do this,” Kara says absent mindedly. Lena tenses and looks down at her hands, and Kara immediately notices.

 

“Oh, Lena, I just, I mean-”

 

“It’s not easy for me to trust,” Lena says quietly.

 

“I know,” Kara whispers back. “I still don’t quite get why, but I respect it.”

 

“Not everyone is as nice as Kara Danvers,” Lena quips. She pulls one of her feet up to rest her chin on her knee and thinks for a moment. She takes a deep breath before continuing. “The universe is cruel. It doesn’t take very long to learn that.” Lena looks up and finds Kara staring at the space behind her with a far away look in her eyes.

 

“I know,” Kara repeats.

 

Lena’s eyes flick over Kara’s face, taking in the glazed look and the crinkle in between her eyebrows. Kara winces and brings her hand up to push at her glasses, bringing herself out of her daze.

 

“I like your room,” Kara says randomly. Lena scrunches her face in confusion and tilts her head. Kara’s abrupt topic change throws her off and she doesn’t say anything.

 

“I just like it. It reminds me of you, which makes sense because it’s your room so of course it reminds me of you, but I like that the green walls match your eyes sometimes, except for when you sit in the window, then your eyes are more blue ‘cause of the sky, not like I pay close attention to them or anything-”

 

“Thank you,” Lena cuts her off with a small smile. Kara returns it and taps twice on Lena’s knee, her eyes falling to follow the movement. Her smile fades and she taps twice more, the far-away look returning. Lena frowns, wondering where Kara went, and ducks her head to catch Kara’s eyes.

 

“Is everything okay?” Lena asks tentatively. Kara’s lips twitch into the smallest smile and she reaches out to grab Lena’s hands.

 

“It will be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen peanut butter m&ms are the best thing EVER!! also kara and lena totally have weird emotional convo's and kara totally deflects it sometimes bc it gets too real and no one can tell me otherwise. also.... this is so bad but i really wanna start a titanic au................ someone tell me not to
> 
> thanks for reading!!!!!!!!


	5. chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW!!!! i had the busiest last month of summer possible. now that school has started im hoping to get more chances to write, but im in two AP classes and in marching band and im just so BUSY but!!!! im hoping to write more so we'll see how that goes. that being said: IM SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT!!!!!!!!! i told you guys that i would never stop writing and thats TRUE!! i might just have really really long accidental hiatuses!! thank you so so so much for all of your comments, they make me so so happy! i hope this chapter is worth the wait!
> 
> (also........ i didn't ask my beta to do this chapter bc i suck and really wanted to get this out right away for all mistakes are mine)

Every year, when the leaves change colors, Kara wishes that they would turn slower.

 

One day, you wake up and the leaves are yellow at the edges. Some of them are a bit more red than others, but the whole leaf is mainly green.

 

(Green. Her new favorite color.

 

The color of _trees_ and _plants_ and _grass._ )

 

_((The color of Lena’s eyes.))_

 

The next day, though, you wake up, and the leaves aren’t green at all.

 

Before you know it, you’re waking up and they’re all on the ground. You barely got to see them on their branches.

 

Kara wakes up to the sun rising and leaves brushing against her window as they fall. With a sigh, she stands and walks toward the window. The sky doesn’t burn as orange as it used to; with the cold days coming it grows pink.

 

At least, she thinks, this is a season of peace.

 

A season of lower powers. Less reminders of home. Holidays to celebrate with friends and family.

 

_Friends._

 

Kara knows that Lena is an early riser. She hears the brunette’s alarm go off every morning around 6:30. She’d already be awake by this time, seeing as the sun rose at 6:45 this day, Kara notes with a sigh.

 

Winter was peaceful, but winter was _hard._

 

The sun rose later, so Kara had to set actual alarms. Eliza was never too happy about this, it always meant buying at least three new clocks after Kara crushes them (in Kara’s defense, waking up to a natural spurt of energy was _much_ more pleasant than waking up to a screeching machine).

 

The brunette’s blinds were still closed, a fact Kara never understood. She couldn’t understand how someone would want to shut out the sun.

 

Kara set about getting ready at a human speed, slipping on a sweater and her jeans. She’s in the middle of quietly singing one of her favorite songs from Krypton when she hears taps at her window.

 

Her head shoots up so fast her glasses slip down her nose, her hand coming up to push at them. She smiles when she sees Lena in her window, but it quickly falls when she takes in the brunette’s expression.

 

“Hey! What’s wrong?” Kara asks as she opens her window.

 

“I-” Lena starts, before being cut off by a sneeze. “I have the flu, Mother is forbidding me from going to school.”

 

“What?” Kara asks. “Don’t kids normally have to beg their parents to let them stay home?”

 

“I want to go to school, believe it or not,” Lena remarks, sniffing and wiping her nose before continuing. “But Mother is a doctor, so she knows what’s best when it comes to health and school attendance, apparently.”

 

“Oh,” Kara says, frowning at the state of her friend. “Do you need anything? I’ve never had the flu before so I don’t really know what to do, but I want to help!” Kara sits on her windowsill and smiles up at Lena, hoping to get a smile in return.

 

What she gets instead is a blank stare and a slight frown.

 

“I don’t need anything, Kara.” Lena says. “I’m sick, not incapable of all function. I’ll be fine soon enough, I just wished to let you know that I wouldn’t be at school. I’ll talk to you later,” Lena purses her lips and closes her window, returning to bed without another word.

 

_Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ she thinks. _It’s too late to go back now, the damage is done._ Lena sighs and rolls to face her wall, feeling Kara’s stare on her back.

 

“Okay,” Kara says quietly to Lena’s back, fighting the disappointment creeping it’s way into her mind.  She finishes getting ready before heading into the hall to knock on Alex’s door. She pulls her hand away to see indents in the wood. “Shoot,” Kara sighs. Walking downstairs, the smell of bacon doesn’t even make her float like normal.

 

“Someone has heavy feet today,” Eliza comments tentatively. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

 

“I’m _fine_ ,” Kara huffs. At Eliza’s disbelieving glare, she flops onto the stool and drops her chin on her hand. “Lena snapped at me this morning when I asked her if she needed anything.”

 

“I told you!” Alex shouts, her voice carrying down the stairs. “I told you she was a bitch.”

 

“Alex!” Both Eliza and Kara scold.

 

“She’s not, Alex, she’s just sick,” Kara says with a frown.

 

“We know, Kara,” Eliza says, patting Kara’s shoulder.

 

“Still think she’s a bitch,” Alex mumbles. Kara’s deep frown has her rolling her eyes and standing up. “I’ll be in the car,” she says, shoving a piece of bacon in her mouth as she goes.

 

The ride to school is tense; Kara sits in the back seat brooding, Alex is tapping the whole way, and Eliza doesn’t say a word. At one point, Alex leans forward to punch the radio on, but Kara’s hands instantly find their way to her ears, causing Eliza to turn it off right away.

 

_Looks like I’ll be back here to get Kara today,_ Eliza thinks. She glances up into the rearview mirror, taking the the grimace gracing Kara’s features. _I give her an hour, then I get the call._

 

* * *

 

 

“Hey Kara!” Winn shouts as soon as Kara is in the door. Kara’s eyes start to water from the noise and she grips the door handle. A loud _snap_ resounds through the room and Kara freezes, glances down at the broken handle in her fist.

 

“It must’ve been broken,” Kara mumbles. She looks back up and sees the sympathy on Winn’s face. “It’s fine,” she says quietly. “I just need to concentrate on something.”

 

“Well,” Winn starts at normal volume, but when Kara grimaces again, he lowers her voice. “It’s a good thing we’re in math! That takes a lot of concentration.”

 

Kara thinks back to every previous math class and how she’d had to fake doing work after it took her ten minutes to finish. The notes they take, rather than being challenging, simply bore Kara and all the noises rush in.

 

“Yeah,” she shrugs. “Hopefully,” Kara turns to walk to her seat right as a group of students pour into the class, talking loudly. Winn glares at them, ineffectively, and sends Kara a smile as she walks to her seat.

 

The teacher takes his place at the front of the class as the bell rings, and the class quiets down. Kara sighs in relief, grateful for the moment of quiet. Her relief is short-lived, as the teacher starts speaking with his booming voice.

 

“We have a test coming up, class, so please feel free to use this period as a study session.” Students around Kara start whispering excitedly and moving around, much to Kara’s annoyance. “I have extra worksheets at the front for anyone who wants them,” the teacher adds as he sits down. The class immediately starts talking loudly and Kara makes a beeline for the teachers desk, desperate for a distraction.

 

“Can I have all the worksheets?” Kara asks quietly.

 

“Of course,” the teacher replies, just ask quietly, handing her five papers. “Are you alright?”

 

“We’ll see,” Kara answers honestly. She smiles at the teacher and then at Winn as she makes her way back to her seat. Sitting down at the empty table, Kara goes straight to work. For a little bit, the math is enough to block out students, but then the kids in the back of the room get louder and start throwing things, making the teacher yell at them.

 

Kara stops trying to complete the sheets, and instead opts for trying to find something else to hold onto. The teacher rushes past her to scold the loud students and Kara closes her eyes and covers her ears. The lead in her glasses is enough to desensitize her a little bit, but it doesn’t help the pain.

 

On his way back to his desk, the teacher sits down next to Kara. She hears him whispering to her, so she tries to concentrate on what he’s saying.

 

“-to call anyone? Or do you want to go somewhere quiet?”

 

_Don’t give up, don’t give up, just go somewhere quiet and relax, it’s okay-_

 

_THUMP!_

 

Someone accidentally drops a book in the room, making Kara’s eyes water.

 

“I’d like to go home,” she whispers.

 

The teacher gets up and makes a call, and a few minutes later Alex is ushering Kara out into the hall. Kara grabs all her things and goes out to meet Alex, who’s on the phone with Eliza.

 

“Yeah, mom. She just came out of the room… Sure, here she is,” Alex says, handing Kara the phone. As Kara whispers hello, Alex gives her a side hug and starts walking her to the office.

 

“Hi, sweetie,” Eliza’s voice comes overs the phone gently.

 

“Can you come get me?”

 

“Of course, I’m walking out the door now.” True to her words, Kara hears a door shut in the background. They make it to the office right as the car starts.

 

“We’re in the office,” Kara tells Eliza. “Do you need to talk to the… th-the…”

 

“Secretary,” Alex offers.

 

“Right,” Kara sighs, “The secretary.”

 

“Yes, put him on the phone.”

 

Kara and Alex sit down as the secretary has a brief conversation with their mother, and not before long the phone is being returned to Alex, Eliza on the way.

 

“Do you want me to stay till mom gets here?” Alex asks.

 

“No, you should go,” Kara whispers. “You already miss a lot of class because of me.”

 

“Hey, it’s fine,” Alex reassures, giving Kara a hug. “Plus, this gets me out of that crazy world history class.”

 

“You just think he’s crazy ‘cause you don’t get him,” Kara mocks.

 

“Yeah, well I don’t get how you get him. He confuses me.”

 

“He knows what he’s talking about,” Kara says, ending the conversation. Alex reaches over and grabs Kara’s hand, smiling at her.

 

“You’re okay though, right?” Alex asks quietly.

 

“I’ll be fine,” Kara whispers. “I just need to recharge.”

 

“Literally,” Alex mumbles. Kara smiles at her right as Eliza walks into the office.

 

“You ready to go, Kara?” Eliza asks, giving both her girls a hug.

 

“Yeah,” Kara says as she picks up her bag. “See you later Alex.”

 

“Bye, Kar,” Alex waves as she walks down the hall.

 

“So,” Eliza starts gently. “What happened?” Eliza knows her question is pointless. One occasion that causes Kara to lose control of her hearing is when she’s upset or worried, and the cause of this bout of pain was a green-eyed, flu-ridden, neighbor.

 

“I don’t know this time,” Kara admits as the gets in the car. Eliza pauses as she starts the car and turns to her daughter.

 

“You don’t know?” Eliza asks again. Kara shrugs as her foster mother pulls out of her parking spot and starts the drive home.

 

“It was fine until we left the house,” Kara begins. “Then in class we had a work day so I tried to do work but Lena wasn’t there so I didn’t really have anything to concentrate on other than the math,” Kara stares out the window of the car as she explains her morning. Eliza smiles slightly, figuring Kara doesn’t realize she just found the problem. “It just got really loud… really fast.”

 

“Hmm,” Eliza hums. “So… what happened this morning before we left?”

 

“Well, I left dents in Alex’s door, for starters.”

 

“You know that’s not a big deal, it’s just a door,” Eliza offers, placing her hand on Kara’s shoulder.

 

“But Alex cares,” Kara whispers dejectedly. “So it is a big deal. And Lena snapped at me. She’s sick and she won’t even let me help.”

 

“Talk to her then,” Eliza offers as they pull into the driveway. “Do you think that’s why today is a bad day? Lena? The door?”

 

“Maybe,” Kara mumbles as she walks into the house. “I’m gonna go sit in the sun for a while.”

 

“Do you need anything?” Eliza asks, watching Kara walk up the stairs.

 

“Just some sunlight,” Kara says with the smallest smile. She closes the door behind her and flops into her bed.

 

A sliver of light touches Kara’s hand, making the skin there tingle. Shifting slightly, Kara makes it so her arm is mostly touching the sunlight. A sigh escapes her lips as she feels herself grow warmer, the light reaching the darkest parts of her being. The sun was not only a power source for Kara, at this moment it was also a magnet. The feeling of being filled with the most energizing light called to her, making Kara drag herself out of bed and towards her window.

 

The breeze felt warm and the sun was still low in the morning sky, offering Kara the optimal sun exposure. She was so engrossed in soaking up the sun that she didn’t even notice her friends window opening until an orange tabby jumped into her lap.

 

“Frank!” Kara exclaims quietly. “Hey buddy,” she coos, scratching the cat behind his ears.

 

“Hi,” comes softly from the window. Kara smiles at the cat in her lap sadly before looking up at Lena. She looks no better than she did when Kara offered her help less than an hour ago.

 

“Hey,” Kara mumbles.

 

“What are you doing home?” Lena asks. Kara points to her ears and returns to petting Frank, who is purring loudly in her lap. “Ah,” Lena says, her voice nasally from her stuffy nose. “D- Do you need anything?” Lena asks, unknowingly repeating Kara’s words back to her. Kara scoffs and shakes her head with a mirthless smile.

 

“I don’t need anything, Lena. I’m having sensory overload, not incapable of all function,” Kara replies in a mocking tone. It was a harsh blow, but one Kara couldn’t stop herself from making. Lena sits down on her windowsill stiffly and purses her lips.

 

“I see,” she replies curtly. Neither of them say anything for a moment, just watch the cat as bumps his head against Kara’s stomach. Kara looks up at Lena and tilts her head, taking a deep breath.

 

“I thought we were getting somewhere,” Kara says. Lena looks up at her with a steely gaze and raises an eyebrow.

 

“What do you mean?” Lena asks, much less intimidating than normal with her sick-voice.

 

“You told me that I’d be better off not knowing you. I didn’t believe you, and we were getting somewhere. I thought that we were friends.”

 

“I never said we weren’t,” Lena snaps. Kara looks at Lena pointedly and the brunette sighs and puts her head in her hands. Frank nudges Kara’s hand again and she looks down at him. Lena takes a deep breath and takes her hands away from her face.

 

“As a Luthor, I’ve been taught many things,” Lena starts. “Mostly I’ve been taught who to trust and who not to. How to play a game in your favor. How to manipulate people to get what you want,” she lists. Kara looks up at her when she pauses and Lena takes another deep breath before continuing. “Above all else, never show weakness.”

 

“That’s a dumb rule,” Kara mumbles.

 

“It’s one I’ve been taught since I was four,” Lena sighs. “When you asked me if I needed help, I was offended. What powerful person, what- what _Luthor_ could _ever_ need help from someone else. No one has ever asked me if I needed anything before, I have always,” Lena pauses, gesturing at herself, at the room around her, “ _always_ been able to handle myself. I don’t need anything. From anyone.

 

“And then you show up. You offer me help, you- you offer me a couple laughs, a fun time, an _escape._ I’ve never had friends like you before. I’ve never had _family_ like you before. Lex lives in Smallville, Father is always away, Mother might as well want nothing to do with me,” Lena trails off. “I don’t know how to be around you.”

 

“You don’t have to be anything other than Lena around me,” Kara says, swinging her feet out to face Lena. “I don’t have to be anything other than Kara around you.” Kara pauses to consider her words, looking up at Lena with worry. “What… what did you mean? Since you were four?”

 

“I’m adopted,” Lena says. “My mother died, my father wasn’t around… They put me in a children’s home, and almost immediately the Luthor’s came and brought me from Ireland to the states, to the mansion.” Lena fiddles with her hands, not looking up at Kara, who was trying to ignore how Lena didn’t refer to the mansion as _home._

 

“So am I,” Kara mumbles. Lena looks up at her incredulously and gets a light chuckle in return. “Well, you knew that, didn’t you,” Kara sighs. She looks around her room, at all the pictures of her and the Danvers. One of Jeremiah and Eliza pops out at her, with Kryptonian written and scratched out on the walls.

 

“Do you see that picture?” Kara asks, pointing to the offending photograph. Lena leans forward and pokes her head around Kara’s window to see in the room. Nodding, she settles back in her seat, signalling for Kara to continue. “The writing under it? I did that last year. When things remind me of home, I get upset. One day, I was sitting right here, looking at the stars. They’re the same here as they were back home, but so _so_ different. I wanted to be alone, but Eliza came in. I screamed at her,” Kara pauses with a chuckle. “I told her to get out.

 

“She said- she told me that my parents wouldn’t have wanted this,” Kara whispers, looking back up at Lena, who had tears in her eyes. Kara smiles as the brunette quickly wipes at the tears. “She told me that they would want me to be happy. That was the first time I let her _really_ hug me. I- I haven’t really ever since…” Kara realizes with a blank stare. “I wrote those words on the wall that night. _Ukr_ and _Ieiu,_ ” Kara says, the words bringing a sad smile to her face. “Father and Mother in my language. I wanted to feel whole again. Like nothing had ever changed. I started calling Eliza and Jeremiah mom and dad.

 

“Less than two months later, Jeremiah went missing. I got _so mad._ I stopped calling Eliza mom. I broke so many things… I still do sometimes,” Kara whispers, looking down at her hands. “It’s all an accident, but I still do. Two months after he left, it was the second anniversary of… of.” Kara stops, her throat thick. “I was mad before, but this made me furious. I spent the whole day in my room just- just grieving. I looked at the picture and the writing and… I snapped. I _scratched_ it out of the wall. I didn’t even just write over it. I used my nails.

 

“Eliza walked in to see what the noise was about, and she saw me scratching the words away. She knew what they said, she speaks my language, but it’s not the same. She sounds like a book when she speaks it. She came over to me and I thought she was gonna yell, tell me I was ruining the walls, but she just reached up and started scratching too,” Kara tells with a laugh. Lena chuckles with her and Kara reaches a hand out to hold Lena’s. The two stop laughing and Kara takes a deep breath, looking back up at Lena. “That was five months ago.”

 

“Wow,” Lena breaths out. Neither of them say anything more, just stew over the facts they have just shared with each other. Frank jumps from Kara’s lap and onto the floor, and begins poking around her room. Kara lets out a giggle as the orange tabby crawls under her bed, leaving only his tail visible.

 

“I’m sorry,” Lena says with a sigh, “he’s nosy. You can kick him out if you like.”

 

“No, it’s alright,” Kara laughs when the cat skitters out and towards her closed door. Not a minute later, there's a knock. “Come in," Kara calls. The door opens and Eliza pokes her head in as Frank runs out.

 

“Frank!” Lena yells, making Kara flinch. “Oh,” Lena gasps, putting a hand on Kara’s shoulder, “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

 

“It’s alright,” Kara reassures. She looks up at Eliza, who is smiling slightly. “Hi, Eliza.”

 

“Hi Kara, Lena,” Eliza greets, sitting on Kara’s desk chair. “Are you feeling better, Kara?”

 

“More relaxed, but still sensitive,” Kara admits. “We talked, it helped.” Kara squeezes Lena’s hand gently and smiles at her.

 

“Do either of you want anything? It’s getting close to lunch, I could make something if you’d like,” Eliza offers. Kara looks at Lena nervously as the brunette purses her lips slightly. She watches as Lena shakes herself out of her tenseness and turns to Eliza.

 

“I’m alright, thank you Mrs. Danvers,” Lena says.

 

“Eliza is just fine, honey.” Eliza smiles at Lena and nods when she gets a smile in return. “Kara?”

 

“Um,” Kara thinks. “Could you just- stand up?” Eliza nods and slowly stands, confused at why Kara would want her to do so. Kara squeezes Lena’s hand before she stands up and rushes over to Eliza, hugging her tightly. Eliza pauses in shock before returning the hug, squeezing Kara as tightly as she could. Lena looks away, feeling like an intruder on an important moment.

 

Eliza feels Kara start to shake in her arms, beginning to cry. She starts to sway them back and forth, mumbling to Kara in Kryptonian that everything would be okay. Lena doesn’t really know what to do, so she gets up to give Kara and Eliza a bit of privacy.

 

As she stands, she hears a strangled “no,” come from Kara. Looking over, she sees Kara still hugging Eliza, but facing her. “Stay, Lena,” Kara says, “Please.”

 

Lena nods and sits back down, fiddling with her hands as Eliza and Kara pull apart.

 

“What was that for, sweetheart?” Eliza asks, wiping the tears off of Kara’s face.

 

“I just- I missed hugging you. _Really_ hugging you.”

 

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it,” Eliza says, brushing a strand of hair behind Kara’s ear. Kara laughs lightly and slams back into Eliza, allowing herself to squeeze a little harder than normal.

 

“Yeah,” Kara says with a sigh. Lena smiles at Eliza when they make eye-contact, but quickly looks away. With a pat on Kara’s shoulder, Eliza pulls away from the hug.

 

“I better go find that cat,” Eliza says, punctuating her sentence with a sniffle. “Alex will want to keep him if she sees him.”

 

“No, I can do it,” Kara says, walking towards the door. “He loves me anyway, it’ll be easier for me to catch him.”

 

“ _Nahn voi,”_ Eliza whispers to Kara. Kara sends a smile Lena’s way before rushing out of her room to grab Frank, leaving Eliza and Lena alone.

 

The two sit in silence. Lena refuses to meet Eliza’s eyes as the woman sits down at Kara’s desk. The unicorn notebook sits open on the desk and Eliza chuckles when she reads what's on the page.

 

“Do you see that, there?” Eliza asks Lena, pointing at a line of writing under Kara’s candy list.

 

“Yes,” Lena says, leaning forward to get a better look. It’s written in those weird symbols Kara writes in, and the brunette guesses now that it’s Kara’s language. “What’s it written in?” Lena asks tentatively. Eliza smiles and scoots the chair forward.

 

“Kara’s native tongue,” Eliza confirms Lena’s suspicions. “It’s from this obscure little village somewhere in eastern Europe, it technically doesn’t even have a name,” Eliza says, the lie slipping out of her mouth with ease. “You wanna know what it says?”

 

“Sure,” Lena says with a shrug.

 

“It’s a warning _to_ Kara, written _by_ Kara, saying that she isn’t allowed to buy any of ‘the cheap stuff’ for you. She’s taking this candy thing very seriously,” Eliza says, smiling at a blushing Lena.

 

“It’s very sweet of her,” Lena says, fiddling with her hands.

 

“No pun intended, right?” Eliza asks, gaining a chuckle from Lena, right as Kara walks back in her room with Frank standing on her shoulder.

 

“Hey,” she says with a smile, “did you know he did this?” Kara asks, pointing to the cat. Lena smiles and shakes her head, laughing at the sight of Frank walking on Kara’s head. The laugh turns to a coughing fit quickly and Kara grabs Frank and returns him to Lena’s window.

 

“Oh dear,” Eliza says, coming over to sit on the window sill. “You sound terrible, are you sure there’s nothing I can get you?”

 

“No, no, I’m fine,” Lena says reaching behind her to grab a glass of water. “Thank you, Mrs- Eliza.”

 

“It’s really no trouble. Let me know if you want anything, please.” Eliza smiles at Lena and stands, turning to give Kara a hug.  “Same goes for you, dear. Just shout and I’ll be here.”

 

“Thank you,” Kara says, muffled from where her face is smushed into Eliza’s side. They both let go, Eliza walking out and closing the door behind her, and Kara returning to the window.

 

They sit watching the sun, the silence only broken by Lena’s coughs or sniffs. At some point, Kara turns so that the sun is still hitting her face, and Lena vanishes for a couple of minutes to take medicine.

 

“What’s your favorite color?” Kara asks Lena upon her return.

 

“Umm,” Lena pauses on her way to the window. She sits down on the sill, mirroring Kara and facing the sun, and turns to look at the blonde. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”

 

“What’s the first color that comes to mind, then?”

 

“Red, I suppose,” Lena says with a shrug. Kara smiles at her and nods slowly.

 

“Mine too. It reminds me of home,” she says with a sigh. Turning back to look at the sun, Kara smiles. “It’s tied with green, though.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nahn voi - be careful
> 
> i just..... really love exploring kara's character. shes so complex!!! ugh. also just so you know, i kinda have a plan but i also really don't oops
> 
> thank you again so so much i love you all and hope that i can write more often i miss it so much!
> 
> (also peanut butter m&ms are still the best)


	6. chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a worm! a worthless worm!!!!!! i'm sorry it's bee so long since i've updated!!! theres been a lot happening lately and i've had trouble finding inspiration. i won't bore you with it up here tho, but im TOTALLY dishing out the shade in the end notes. also no beta this chapter (but i did reread it a multitude of times) ENJOY!!!! :)

“Lena.”

 

“...Hey, Lena.”

 

“Lena.”

 

“ _ What,”  _ Lena whispers harshly.

 

“What’s this word mean?” Kara whispers back, one eye on the teacher to make sure they don’t get caught.

 

“Kara, I can’t tell you what it means, we’re taking a vocabulary quiz.”

 

“It’s not  _ my _ fault that I don’t know what a- a coriolis force is!”

 

“Generally that’s how these things work,” Lena whispers with a huff. “It’s D.”

 

“Thank you so much,” Kara scrambles to write her answer down, rushing to turn in her paper. Lena calmly circles her last answer, checks that her name is on it one more time, and gets up to  _ walk _ to turn her paper in.

 

With a huff, Kara slumps in her chair, patiently waiting for the rest of the class to finish their quiz. Lena sits down gently beside her and Kara turns to face her friend. A look of curiosity passes over Lena’s face as she looks back at Kara, and the blonde takes the opportunity to give Lena a beaming smile. 

 

Lena smiles back at her, one of those really goofy happy ones that Kara never really sees at school. Kara sticks her tongue out at Lena, who has to look away and cover a laugh. Kara sets her head in her hand and watches her friend shake with silent laughter.

 

The bell rings loudly in Kara’s ears and she winces as students’ chairs scrape the floor when the teacher announces that they can take a break. Lena gives her a gentle smile and turns back to Kara.

 

“Do you wanna come over tonight?” Kara suddenly asks. Lena blinks in shock and pauses.

 

“What? Why?”

 

“Winn and I are playing board games. I haven’t played many and he says it's time to educate me” Kara sighs, flopping onto her desk dramatically. “It’s dumb. But it might be fun if you come!” 

 

“Don’t say it’s dumb,” Lena says, laughing slightly. “It’s the same thing you’re doing with me and candy.”

 

“Touché,” Kara says, shrugging and turning towards Lena. ‘But will you come? I think I’m gonna ask James too in art. Board games aren’t fun unless you have a lot of people.”

 

“I wouldn’t know,” Lena admits, doodling on her notebook paper as kids start to come back to class. “The only board game I know is chess.”

 

“That’s perfect!” Kara says suddenly. “We can both learn together!”

 

“I guess there’s only one answer,” Lena says with feigned annoyance. A nervous smile breaks out on her face when she looks up at Kara. “Are you sure I’m welcome?”

 

“What? Of course you are. It’s my house. I’m welcoming you right now.”

 

“I meant with Winn and James,” Lena says. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, not everyone likes me. You’re an outlier. You can’t be counted,” Lena huffs. 

 

“James and Winn won’t care as much as you think they will,” Kara says, looking at Lena pointedly. “Not everyone is as mean as you think.” 

 

“You keep telling me this, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that so far,” Lena says with a sour tone. “I’ll go, I guess,” she says with a sigh as Kara squeals next to her.

 

“This’ll be so fun! Maybe we can make it a thing! Like a weekly game night,” Kara gasps. 

 

“You’d be more dedicated to game night than your homework if that was the case. You really need to do that more often.”

 

“No I don’t,” Kara scoffs, turning to face the front of the room.

 

“Yeah you do,” Lena asserts. “Whenever I do homework at night you’re always reading. Do you even do work? How are you passing math?” Lena got progressively more curious as more questioned started popping up in her head.

 

“Umm,” she starts, “I have a lot of free time during the day?” Kara says it more like a question, but Lena chooses to ignore it.

 

What did the Danvers always say?

 

_ Don’t stand out. _

 

“And I get a lot of help from some of the teachers. They know English isn’t my first language, so a lot of my work is  _ easier _ , I guess, than yours,” Kara eyes Lena, who thinks for a moment before shrugging.

 

“You’re right. I forgot about that. You’re English is really good for someone who’s only been speaking it for three years.”

 

_ More like thirty, _ Kara thinks of the Phantom Zone with a shiver. She sighs and pulls out her notebook as the teacher opens a powerpoint. 

 

“Yeah,” she says, “sometimes I wish it wasn’t.”

 

“What do you mean?” Lena asks, starting to copy the first slide as students begin to return to their seats.

 

“It would just make it easier. People hear me speaking and see me writing really well and they don’t believe it when they hear that I’m not from here. Half the stuff people say I don’t understand because you guys have such weird phrases.”

 

“But you have such an advantage over students that don’t know it as well as you,” Lena counters. “You’re an inspiration for other English learners.”

 

“I guess,” Kara sighs, slowly writing down the Kryptonian word for “inspiration” as a reminder. “It just doesn’t always feel like it’s easier. And it makes me miss them,” Kara shrugs. “I feel like I’m betraying everyone by assimilating so well.”

 

“If anything they would be proud of you,” Lena insists, turning to face Kara. “You read books way above your estimated reading level and you don’t have a hint of an accent. If anything I think they’d be happy you turned out this way.”

 

“I hope so,” Kara says with a sad smile. She turns away from Lena as the bells rings and shakes the feeling off. “The thing about the accent is wrong though. I dream in K- Ukrainian most nights, and I wake up speaking it or with the accent. The Danvers said they could get me in classes to get rid of the accent, but I just worked on it myself.”

 

“I went through classes,” Lena announces. “I’m from Ireland, and the accent was atrocious. The Luthors sent me there for years, thankfully I got out of them a while ago. The same thing happens to me, though. If I don’t concentrate on my words…” Lena trails off, leaning towards Kara, “it can come through full force, don’t you think?” Lena asks, letting her accent slip in.

 

Kara giggles at this and Lena smiles at her, rushing to finish the notes on the slide before the teacher changes them. 

 

* * *

 

 

At approximately six o’clock, Kara hears a knock at her door. She rushes to get it before Eliza, eager to see which of her friends made it first.

 

“Lena!” Kara exclaims when the door flies open. “I should’ve guessed you’d be here first,” she says, letting Lena in. “You  _ do _ live right next door.”

 

“Yeah,” Lena says as she looks around the hall. “There’s so many pictures of you,” she says in astonishment.

 

“Yeah,” Kara says with a shrug, leading Lena into her living room. “Eliza says it’s to make up for the fact that I don’t have any from before I was thirteen.”

 

“You don’t?” Lena asks, noticing that all the photos of Kara don’t look very different from how she does now, minus the glasses and plus the bangs. “All of our photos have Lex in them, none are of just me,” she says with a sigh.

 

“Oh,” Kara says, walking into the kitchen where Eliza was. “Everything I had was lost in the fire,” she says, leaning into Eliza as the older woman walks over to them.

 

“Kara,” Eliza says with a laugh, pushing the blonde out of her way, “you know I hate it when you do that. You’re like a brick wall when you want to be.” Lena watched the interaction with a small smile, chuckling a little when Kara shot her a smirk. “Hi, Lena,” Eliza says, leaning over to give the brunette a side hug. Lena tenses a little but decides it’s okay when Eliza rubs her arm slightly.

 

“Hello Mrs. Danvers.”

 

“Call me Eliza. Do either of you want anything?”

 

“I’m alright, thank you,” Lena says awkwardly.

 

“We’ll just eat all of the snacks in the living room so James and Winn regret showing up late,” Kara announces with a glint in her eyes, grabbing Lena’s hand and pulling her to the living room. Before Kara can even sit down, the doorbell rings.

 

“Ooh!” Kara squeals, hopping  _ humanly _ over the back of the couch to reach her friends. She opens the door as sees James, standing next to a stack of board games with legs.

 

“I wanted us to have a variety!” comes the shout from behind the boxes. Kara laughs and takes half the boxes, revealing Winn’s face. 

 

“Thank you,” she says with a smile. “Lena’s already here, so we can get started! What should we play first? It has to be a game with four players or else it would be weird so I think we should-”

 

“Monopoly?” James asks, cutting off Kara and grabbing a handful of chips that were on the table. 

 

“Like business?” Lena asks, joining Kara on the floor around the table. 

 

“Yeah kinda. We’ll explain, but first,” James pauses as he whips the box open with a flourish, “pick your player.”

 

Kara scrambles once she sees the dog. Lena and Winn both end up fighting over the car while James takes the bowler hat. In the end, Lena gets the car and Winn gets the hotdog.

 

Winn goes over the rules, with James interrupting to add the things he forgets. Lena listens with rapt attentions while Kara fidgets in her seat and messes with her money.

 

“-and the last player to have money is the winner! But we don’t have to play until then, we’ll be here for hours if we do.”

 

“Our first game night can’t be spent learning  _ just _ monopoly,” James jests as he rolls the die. 

 

Neither James nor Winn know quite how she does it, but Lena has the groove of the game down  _ fast _ . Kara is still a tad confused by the cards, she stares at them for a while before leaning into Lena and asking her to explain  _ ‘why does the little man get my money for a contest I’m not even a part of?’  _

 

“Please don’t be a six please don’t- and it’s a six,” Winn sighs in defeat. He advances his piece six spaces before setting it down gingerly on one of Lena’s properties. One of Lena’s properties that happens to be purple and  _ also _ have a hotel on it. “How much,” he asks with a grumble. Lena preens at his defeat while she fishes for the card in her stack.

 

“Honestly Winn,” James comments, “why did you think it’d be a good idea to play a business game with a child from the most business savvy family in America?”

 

“I don’t know,” Winn groans.

 

“It’s $150, Winslow,” Lena announces. Winn looks at his measly pile of cash and counts $130. 

 

“Alright, I never thought I’d say this,” he says, simultaneously impressed and defeated, “but I just lost a game of monopoly within two hours. How’d you do it?”

 

“Beginners luck I guess.”

 

“Let’s play a game without tactic to see how Lena does with that!” Kara exclaims. “Do you have any games like that?”

 

“Sorry!” James suggests.

 

“Oh, no, it’s okay if you don’t,” Kara stammers.

 

“No, that’s the game! It’s a bunch of cards that you use to move your pieces around the board and it’s totally tactic free.”

 

“Let’s give it a go,” Lena says, rubbing her hands together.

 

At the end of an hour, Kara is elated, slowly putting her final piece into the home section. Right as she sets it down, she stands and throws her arms over her head, turning to look at each of her friends with a bright smile on her face. 

  
“I  _ love _ board games!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanted to make this longer but i wanted to get something out more than i wanted it to be long so HERE! i had to rewrite this a few times and it originated with lena joining the danvers for thanksgiving (which will come back) but it just didnt write well here. so you get the FIRST game night!
> 
> but anyway.. my LIFE! none of it is really bad but it's all very mentally/emotionally taxing? i never learned why the dont fall in love with ur bestfriend thing was a thing but NOW i understand bc i fell in love with my best friend and now she hates me. so i kinda lost interest in writing a HS romance when my own had been so crappy? and then i have to start applying for college but i've been putting that off until marching band is over and also i need to get a job and my grades are dropping and !!!!!!!! so much stuff!!!
> 
> but on the plus side all of that is slowly but surely being taken care of and i have a handle on things and my love for supercorp has been thoroughly rejuvinated. it might still be a while before I update again cause i suck but it won't be this long of a gap!!!! 
> 
> thank you so much for all of your comments and for sticking with me!! you all mean the world to me and it makes me so happy to know that you're out there reading my stuff and liking it. you're all so great!!! see you again soon :)


	7. chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so im super sorry if this is choppy!!!! i've been writing it in chunks for a while. i had a massive english paper that i had to write but i turned it in today and im FINALLY getting on top of college and shit so! but yes here is this lovely chapter, the kryptonian stuff is at the bottom :)) also all mistakes are mine

“Don’t laugh!” Lena exclaims, even though she herself is laughing.

 

“It wasn’t my fault! I was seven!” Lena laughs again, “I didn’t know German as well as I thought I did! I should’ve  _ learned _ from JFK, but instead I called myself a jelly donut in front of the Chancellor of Germany,” Lena says with a sigh.

 

“It’s okay,” Kara says between laughs, “you should’ve heard my English a year and a half ago. I’m pretty sure most of what I said was complete gibberish, but I was learning!”

 

“Yeah,” Lena says, slouching in her chair, “You had an excuse.” Kara smiles at Lena and jumps when the brunettes door slams open. Lena instantly shoots upright and turns to her desk, shaking her head at Kara as Lillian enters the room.

 

“Yes, mother?” Lena asks. 

 

“Your brother is downstairs. He’s here for Thanksgiving. Come say hello,” Lillian says curtly, turning around and closing the door. Lena lets out a sigh and turns back to Kara, who is staring at Lena with concern.

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing you just- I think that’s the first time I ever saw you interact with your mom. Is it always that intense? And short?”

 

“Yeah, basically,” Lena says, sighing as she stands up. “I have to go th-”

 

“Kara!” 

 

Kara jumps out of her chair and shouts, “I have to go!” at Lena before running off with a smile on her face. Lena sighs and walks calmly out of her room, wanting to see Lex, but not wanting to get yelled at.

 

* * *

 

 

“Kal-El!” Kara exclaims as she shoots through the air.    
  


“Kara!  _ Te ugir _ !” Clark says, dropping his bags and grabbing onto the girl in his arms with no sway at all. Kara smiles through the butchered pronunciation, trying not to cringe at the over exaggerated ‘R’.

 

“What are you doing here?” Kara asks, letting go of Clark and returning to the ground. “Not that I’m not happy to see you but-”

 

“My friend from Smallville was coming to visit someone. He knows I have family here so he asked if I wanted to come along! Funnily enough the place he’s visiting is right next door.”   
  


“You’re friends with  _ Luthor _ ?” Alex asks, coming around to give Clark a stiff hug.

 

“Yeah, I saved his life when we were younger and he doesn’t know I’m- you know. He’s a lot nicer than the papers make him seem.”   
  


“Yeah but haven’t you seen-”

 

“Let’s not talk about this right now,” Eliza interrupts, putting one arm around Clark and one around Kara. “Let’s just make some food and talk about something else, okay?”

 

“Agreed,” Clark says, ruffling Kara’s hair and dodging Kara’s fist when she swings at him. 

 

“Kal-El!” Kara shouts, running after him.

 

* * *

 

 

“Lex?” Lena asks, making her way slowly down the stairs. Lex looks up and smiles at her, looking around at the lack of their mother before opening his arms and nodding his head. Lena pauses, before running the rest of the way down the stairs and jumping into his arms. 

 

“Hey, Lee,” Lex says with a smile, swaying gently with Lena in his arms.

 

“I’ve missed you,” Lena mumbles into his shoulder. 

 

“Well good thing I’m here for awhile then.” Lena pulls away and Lex lets her fall to the floor, arms still loosely around her. 

 

“How long constitutes as ‘awhile’ for you?” Lena asks hesitantly.

 

“Until Sunday!” Lex exclaims, as if that’s all the time in the world. Lena sighs and steps back, smiling up at her brother. “For Thanksgiving. I figured coming here would be more pleasing to you than going to Smallville.” 

 

“You’ve got that right,” Lena says with a small smile, leaning back in to hug her brother.

 

“Now, Lena,” Lex starts, putting his arm around Lena’s shoulder while leading her into the kitchen, “tell me about school.”

 

“Well there’s not much to tell, honestly,” Lena shrugs. “Classes are fairly simple, the teachers are all decent-  _ yes, _ mother checked- and the students aren’t too horrible, I suppose.” Lex sits her down at one of the stools and snaps his fingers at his assistant.

 

“Get us something to drink, nothing strong for Lena,” he mumbles, before turning back to his little sister. “That’s good! I have a question, Lee,” Lex changes the topic, causing Lena to roll her eyes.

 

“Yes?”

 

“What do you think of the neighbors? The Danvers?” Lex leans forward and reached for the glasses brought to him. Lena tenses up as she accepts the glass of orange juice.

 

“Um,” she falters, “why?”

 

“No reason,” Lex says, leaning back. If Lena didn’t know him so well, she’d say he was being honest, but the glint in his eyes tells Lena otherwise. “My friend Clark is related to them or something, I don’t know. I was just curious as to what you knew about them.”

 

“Well,” Lena says, thinking through the information she knows.  _ The symbols, the strange language, the way Kara tenses when she talks about Ukraine- what is safe to tell him? Nothing. _ “I’m friends with one. Her bedroom window is right by mine.”

 

“Oh?” Lex says, the eager demeanor back. “Tell me about her.”

 

“Well, she’s smart, kind, isn’t rude,” Lena says, sipping her drink, knowing that she is giving him the bare minimum. “I don’t know her very well,” she lies. “We just have classes together and I let her borrow books. Frank seems to like her more than I do,” Lena says with a fake chuckle, glad that her time as a Luthor has taught her to lie well. 

 

“Huh,” Lex says, watching her. “Lena, I-” Lex is cut of by a meow, as if Frank knew when and where the right time to show up would be.

 

“Hey buddy,” Lena says as she picks him up, knowing that Lex hates him. 

 

“Lena, put that thing down,” he says, downing the last bit of his whiskey as he stands. “Mother and I are putting a list together of things to be made for tomorrow's dinner. Is there anything special you’d like?”

 

Lena knows the question isn’t genuine, so she shakes her head. “The usual is fine.” She says, walking to the windows with Frank in her arms. 

 

From this point in the house, she can see in the Danvers’ kitchen window, where Kara is  _ literally _ hanging off of a man's shoulders. He turns around and Lena can see that both of them have glasses pushed up onto their heads, rather than in front of their eyes. Lena stops and takes in the man, trying to pinpoint who he is. It hits her when the glasses drop back onto his face. Lena turns away as she finally places him as Clark Kent.

 

* * *

 

 

“You never told me you knew Clark Kent,” Lena says later that night, when both she and Kara are supposed to be asleep.

 

“Yeah,” Kara says quietly, but the beam she’s been giving Lena all night tells her that Kara is barely containing her excitement. “I guess it just never came up. He’s my cousin.”

 

“Through the Danvers?”

 

“No, my- he’s the only person in my family left,” Kara says, losing her brightness.

 

“Oh,” Lena says, not knowing what else to say.

 

“He moved away when he was just a baby,” Kara starts, shifting her hold on a stuffed bird- a present from Clark, apparently. “His mother and father sent him away when they couldn’t take care of him anymore, so he grew up here. When the village b-burned,” Kara pauses, taking a deep breath, “he found me. He was the one who brought me here. Ra- God knows where I’d be if he didn’t.”

 

“Wow,” Lena says, leaning forward. She grabs Kara’s hand and squeezes it gently. “I’m glad you have family left, Kara.”

 

“Yeah,” Kara says, a little disheartened. “I’m happy he’s here, but it’s always just a reminder of what I lost, you know?”

 

“Yeah,” Lena whispers as a realization dawns on her. “Oh, god, I’m horrible,” Lena gasps, letting go of Kara’s hand. “You were all happy and i just had to go and ruin your mood,” she says, bringing her hands to cover her mouth. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, barely saying the words.

 

“Hey, no,” Kara says, reaching her hand out and taking Lena’s back in her own. “It’s okay. This happens when he visits.” Kara smiles sadly at Lena as the girls relaxes, her shoulders shrugging in regret. “He did tell me something interesting though,” Kara says, her smile growing into something happier.

 

“What?”

 

“That you have family visiting. Your brother?”

 

“Yeah, Lex,” Lena says slowly. “Clark told you? He knew?”

 

“Yeah, you- you didn’t know?” Kara asks, confused. 

 

“Lex doesn’t talk about Clark much. Honestly I wasn’t sure they were still talking. With Clark’s articles and Lex’s experiments, I thought they were too different. I haven’t seen Clark in over a year.”

 

“Clark told me that he and Lex ‘butt heads,’ and that’s why they work so well. He said,” Kara takes a deep breath in and puffs her chest out “We challenge each other,” she says with a low voice and a heavy brow. Lena laughs,  _ really  _ laughs, and Kara beams.

 

* * *

 

 

“Kal-El?” Kara asks groggily when she wakes up to Clark nudging her shoulder.

 

“Kara,  _ Khahp rrip awuhkh-iv,”  _ Clark whispers. Kara shoots out of bed with panicked eyes, grabbing onto her cousin.

 

“ _ What?” _ she hisses, “Kal-El,  _ zha, zha, zha!” _ Kara exclaims with tears in her eyes.

 

“What?” Clark asks, truly confused by his cousin’s outburst. 

 

“That isn’t correct, don’t  _ ever _ say that again!” Kara yells, punctuating her sentence with a hard punch to Clark’s shoulder.

 

“Ow,” he whispers, “what? I have to go, Kara, I was just letting you know,” Clark explains quietly when Kara begins to cry.

 

“No,” Kara insists, pushing Clark a little, before jumping up and hugging him. “ _ Zha, zha, jolum,” _ Kara whispers.

 

“What did I say,” Clark whispers hoarsely, realizing he must have said something horrible. Kara didn’t normally act like this when he messed up his Kryptonian.

 

“You said you had to go but- but you said that you had to abandon me,” Kara says into his shirt.

 

“Oh, Kara,” Clark sighs, floating to sit down on Kara’s bed with her cradled in his arms. “You know I would never,  _ ever _ , leave you like that. Not if I had a choice. You know my-”

 

“I know,” Kara cuts him off. “I know. You could get hurt, and I would be sad, but I’d know that you got hurt fighting for what you believe in,” she sighs, sagging in her cousin’s arms.

 

“That’s right. I will  _ always _ make it back to you if it’s possible. Always,” he whispers, hugging Kara tightly.

 

“And if you- if you don’t it will be okay,” Kara says, leaning away to look her only living family member in the eyes. “I would give you the proper ceremony and later we would be together again in Rao’s Light,” Kara says with determination.

 

“Exactly,” Clark says, pulling Kara in for a big hug.

 

“ _ Khahp ukeim rrip, Kara,”  _ Clark whispers. “But I really do have to go,” he says lightly. Kara lets out a wet chuckle and releases him. 

 

“You’ll be back in time for dinner though, right?”

 

“Of course, Lois just needs me back in Metropolis.

 

“Why didn’t she come?” Kara asks, getting back under her covers. 

 

“She’s in the middle of a story,” Clark says with a loving eye roll. “I’ll be back as soon as possible, I just didn’t want you to wake up without me.”

 

“Thank you,” Kara says, laying down. “I’ll see you in a few hours?” Kara asks, realizing the sun is still down.

 

“Yup,” Clark says with a pop, “I’m even coming back with the turkey.”

 

“Make sure it’s a big one!” Kara shouts. Clark chuckles and shakes his head, turning out Kara’s lights. “I’ll see you soon.”

 

“ _ Ehrosh :bem,”  _ Kara mumbles, letting herself fall asleep to dream of other worlds.

 

* * *

 

 

In the morning, Lena is woken up by an insistent tapping on her window and Frank meowing loudly in her ear. 

 

“What,” she groans, rolling onto the floor to shuffle over to the window. Throwing it open, she’s met with a sullen Kara. “What’s wrong, where's the fire?” Lena asks, rubbing her eyes while sitting on the floor.

 

“Wait- there’s a fire?” Kara asks, suddenly alert and not sad at all. Lena waves her hand through the window and yawns, while reaching over to grab her chair. 

 

“It’s an expression. There isn’t a fire. What’s up?”

 

“Oh,” Kara says dejectedly. After a long pause, Lena nods and accepts that’s all she’s getting from Kara without prompting.

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah,” Kara sighs, staring at the picture of Eliza and Jeremiah on her wall. “I thought I was gonna have a good Thanksgiving,” Kara starts, and Lena settles in, ready for the rant. “I probably will once Clark comes back but, right now it’s sad. Lois needed something, so Clark went somewhere, and did the thing- I have  _ no _ idea what he was doing. But he’s not back, and Thanksgiving is supposed to be with family.”

 

“I get the feeling,” Lena sighs, leaning against the window frame. “Lex is here, but Father isn’t. I was happy Lex came, but now Father isn’t, and it’ll just be us two and Mother. Not a very enjoyable time.”

 

“I wish we could have our own Thanksgiving,” Kara mumbles, hugging the stuffed bird. 

 

“Yeah,” Lena sighs.

 

“What are you doing for Christmas?” Lena asks after a long pause. It seems to have been the right question, because Kara lights up.

 

“Well, Eliza is jewish, but Jeremiah wasn’t, so we kind of mash up Hanukkah and Christmas!” Kara exclaims. “We get a tree but we also have our menorah, it’s been in Eliza’s family for  _ years _ , and we just decorate. It’s a lot of fun. I never used to celebrate anything around this time of year before I got here.”

 

“Really? What kinds of things did you celebrate?” Lena asks, relieved at the lack of questioning on her own holiday plans. 

 

“Well, we kinda celebrated the Fall Equinox, I guess,” Kara explains, trying her best to find Earth holidays equivalent to Kryptonian ones. “We also had this celebration where we celebrated the new year, we called it the- the Nova Cycle though,” Kara says, translating the name of the holiday for Lena’s sake. She pauses, knowing that her talking about her life can get boring, but Lena watches on with rapt attention, so Kara smiles and continues.

 

“We had this thing called- um- there’s no translation of it so-  _ Kanar-Onn,”  _ Kara says. Lena looks at her in awe, having only heard the language a few other times. She forces herself to remember,  _ not Ukrainian, not Ukrainian, but what? _ “That was celebrated once every ten years, it was just a giant festival. Everyone wore special robes and special colors, it was beautiful.”

 

“Wow,” Lena whispers, fully awake. “That’s amazing.”

 

“Yeah,” Kara chuckles, looking down at the stuffed bird in her hands. “What about you?” Kara asks, not noticing Lena’s heart practically sink.

 

“Well,” Lena starts stiffly, “we don’t get a tree,” she says, nodding sadly. “Mother thinks they’re too messy. Father can sometimes make it, but most of the time he’s either out of the country or- more often lately he’s- well he’s in the hospital. Mother and I normally have dinner, then I go to bed, and in the morning there’s a few presents for me. Father sends me books, Lex sends something from wherever he is, and Mother gets me dresses that I need for her galas,” Lena looks down, not wanting to see the sad look she  _ knows _ Kara is giving her. 

 

Kara places a hand on Lena’s shoulder and does her best to hug Lena without falling out of the window (and if she floats a little bit to keep that from happening, no one needs to know).

 

“We can have a friends Christmas if you want,” Kara suggests as she pulls away. Lena smiles at her and nods, wiping the tears off of her cheeks.

 

“That would be lovely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Te Ugir! - my treasure
> 
> Khahp rrip awuhkh-iv - I must leave (abandon or desert)
> 
> zha - no
> 
> Jolum - wrong
> 
> Khahp ukeim rrip - i love you (familial)
> 
> Ehrosh :bem - hello/goodbye, generally means ‘good journey’
> 
> SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! few things about the episode and the cross-over
> 
> a friend asked me to watch it for him bc hes jewish and wanted to know if it was really as bad as people sad and just... wow. it was so so bad. i turned it off after they started showing footage of nazi germany and shit cause it was just.... im so sorry for anyone who was affected negatively by the crossover and i wish it never happened and i love you very much ♥
> 
> tonight though???? lena and james? nope. NOPE! it annoys me that theyre just putting james with lena for the hell of it :// gotta love that het shit right! anyway
> 
> thank you so much for reading!!!! im sorry it was another big gap but soooo much has been happening lately. ill get another one out asap!!!! supercorp is the greatest thing to ever happen to me and i love you guys for reading and enjoying and adding to the wonderful-ness that is supercorp fanfic. thank you so much!!!!!!!! ♥♥♥


	8. chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO SORRY again for the long wait. everything is happening so much but hey! here u go. just regular shenanigans with the crew. (all mistakes are mine, even tho i read this over like four times) enjoy :))

“So!” Kara exclaims when she sits down at lunch. Silence falls on the group as they wait for Kara to say something else. When she says nothing, Alex sighs.

 

“Okay…” she draws out, right as Lena sits down.

 

So!” Kara shouts again, startling Lena.

 

So?” Lena asks.

 

“I think…” Kara says slowly, “that we should do a Secret Santa!”

 

“I’m Jewish,” Winn and Alex say at the same time.

 

“Well I  _ know _ that,” Kara says exasperatedly. “Alex, be quiet, we celebrate Christmas. And technically I’m Jewish too!” she yells, and swats at Alex’s arm. 

 

“Sure,” Alex says, shaking her head slightly while looking at Winn, who stifles a laugh. “We just use you to light the menorah since you never get burned.”

 

“What!” Kara exclaims. “My conversion was made official this summer,” she grumbles.

 

“Right!” Alex says, guilt on her face. “Sorry. But- why do you wanna do Secret Santa?”

 

“It could be fun!” Kara says. She looks at Lena and nods. “Right? Friends Christmas?” Lena looks up from her book as she realizes Kara was talking to her.

 

“Right," Lena says with a small smile. "I guess Secret Santa could be fun.” 

 

“Sure, why not,” Maggie adds with a shrug, taking a bite of Alex’s apple.

 

“Hey,” Alex whines half-heartedly. “Alright, so if we’re doing this, how and when?

 

“The hat way?” WInn suggests. “It’s classic. Write your names on a piece of paper and pick out of a hat.

 

“I like it!” Kara agrees. “Do you guys wanna do it before or after Hanukkah?”

 

“I think after, Kara,” Alex says.

 

“Yeah, you gotta give people time to get gifts,” James nods in agreement. 

 

“When does Hanukkah start?” Lena asks.

 

“Soon! Next Tuesday actually,” Kara answers. “ We’ll do it the first day of break!”

 

“Who has paper?” Maggie asks.

 

* * *

 

 

“Alex,” Kara whines, sitting in her  _ other _ window, to make sure Lena doesn't hear, while Alex huffs behind her, “what am I supposed to do!”

 

“Kara what do you mean?” Alex sighs, looking at her nails. “You got Lena. Why are you freaking out?”

 

“I don’t know!” Kara yells, floating gently from the window sill to her floor to lay down. “I don’t really know what to get her because I want to get her something nice but she has so much and she can probably get anything she wants ever because her family has so much money so whatever I get her doesn’t really compare to anything she can get from-”

 

“Kara!” Alex interrupts, shoving her sister over so she has room on the floor. Kara sighs and stops her rant, running her fingers through her carpet like grass. 

 

“It’s Lena,” Alex whispers.

 

“Yeah, and?”

 

“Lena loves you,” Alex says, nudging Kara. Kara feels her face warm up and butterflies in her stomach.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yup. And that means that anything you get her, she’s gonna love it.”

 

“I guess you’re right,” Kara sighs, wiggling on the floor impatiently before settling. “You think so?”

 

“Kara, I  _ know _ so. Just get her something that makes you think of her. She’ll probably cry. She cried when you lent her your book, so,” Alex laughs, standing up. Kara frowns and stands with her sister, walking over to her desk. 

 

“Don’t make fun of her, Alex,” Kara warns, grabbing her unicorn notebook.

 

“Fine, fine,” Alex says, holding up her hands in defeat.

 

“Who did you get?”

 

“I got Winn,” Alex says with a shrug. “I’ll probably get him one of those tiny tool sets specifically for electronics. He’d like that right?” Alex asks, watching Kara start scribbling Kryptonian into her notebook.

 

“He’d love it! Do you know who Maggie has?”

 

“Kara, you’re not supposed to know who has who,” Alex chastises on her way out the door.

 

“Fine,” Kara groans.

 

“I’ll see you at dinner okay?” Kara hums in response as Alex closes the door, writing away. She writes ideas, memories, anything about Lena that could give Kara an idea. A knock on her window startles her out of her frantic transcribing. Kara whips around to face Lena and closes her notebook a little to fast to be human.

 

“Hey,” Lena’s voice comes through the window, slightly muffled. Kara smiles and rolls her chair over to open it. “I need your help,” she says exasperatedly.

 

“With what?” Kara asks, tensing in readiness.

 

“I can’t ask you,” Lena says nervously, fiddling with Frank in her lap. She lets him jump through to say hello to Kara.

 

“What do you mean?” Kara asks, ignoring Frank in her concern, which elicits an angry meow from the tabby.

 

“I just- secret santa…” Lena trails off. “Can you get Alex so I can talk to her? You can’t be in here.” Kara calms down, but scrunches her eyebrows in confusion.

 

“Sure…” Kara says slowly, a smile growing on her face. “You have me for secret santa, don’t you?” Kara asks, fidgeting excitedly in her seat.

 

“No!” Lena insists. “Just go get your sister,” she pleads, clicking her tongue for Frank to come back. Kara smiles and ushers him through the window with a squeal.

 

“Alex!” Kara yells as she runs out the door, leaving an exasperatedly Lena in her wake. Lena sighs as she hears Kara pound through the house calling her sisters name.  _ How the hell do you get a gift for someone so complex? _

 

Lena never had anyone to be a good… gift giving role model in her life (or any sort of good role model at all, really). There was no situation that she had seen someone give a genuine gift. Secret santa was  _ way _ out of her league. She’s knocked out of her trance by Kara’s door opening with Alex coming in and shoving Kara away.

 

“Kara, go away and don’t listen,” Alex says before she slams the door shut and walks over to the window. “I can’t believe Kara already knows who people have in this stupid thing,” she huffs as she sits. “She’s really missing the point.”

 

“Yes,” Lena says quietly.

 

“So what do you need, kid?” Alex asks.

 

“As you probably know… I have Kara for the exchange.”

 

“Yup,” Alex says, popping the p.

 

“I have no idea what to get her,” Lena admits.

 

“You two are both the same,” Alex sighs, leaning forward on her knees. “Get her something that makes you think of her. You know her. I can hear you two jabbering out here all night, my room is right there,” Alex says, pointing to her right. “You  _ know _ her. Just get her something that makes you think of her.” Alex goes to get up, but Lena’s words stop her.

 

“But I don’t really, do I?” Lena asks quietly.  _ This wasn’t the point _ , Lena’s mind yells at her,  _ stop it, stop it, stop it!  _ Alex whips her head up and glares at Lena. “I’m sorry,” the younger girl immediately says. “I’m so sorry, I know that there’s something but you don’t have to worry I’m not trying to figure it out I promise I-”

 

“Listen,” Alex says, shutting Lena up. “I like you. I didn’t when we first met, ‘cause I didn’t trust you. But I like you. Kara likes you. You’re one of us now, okay? So I’m not gonna hesitate to tell you this.”

 

“Okay,” Lena whispers with wide eyes.

 

“There’s a secret. But it’s stuff you don’t need to know right now. Kara can tell you when she feels ready. Until then? Drop it.”

 

“Will do,” Lena mumbles. “Thank you for the explanation,” she says with a nod.

 

“Right,” Alex says, standing up. “Well,” she says after taking a deep breath, “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

 

“I won’t stop wondering,” Lena says slowly, “but I won’t… come to any conclusions.”

 

“Good,” Alex mumbles. She turns and walks toward the door, pausing when she opens it. “You’re a good kid Lena. Just get her something that makes you think of her.” Lena nods and Alex starts to walk out of the door, mumbling, “I feel like a stupid parakeet saying the same goddamn thing.”

 

Kara bursts into the room a few seconds later and Lena does her best to act like she didn’t just accidentally try to unlock her biggest secret.

 

* * *

 

 

Walking into math the next day, Kara grumbles. Lena watches as she walks toward her seat with a hand over one of her ears. Winn gets up to walk over to them, and sits down in front of them. 

 

“Hey Kara!” he greets. Kara sends him a small glare and sits down. Lena places her hand on Kara’s shoulder, and tries to catch her eyes.

 

“What’s wrong Kara?” Lena asks gently.

 

“I couldn’t find one of my ear pieces this morning and Eliza was rushing me out of the door so I didn’t have time to look so I only have one in,” she explains, ripping the other one out. “And it’s  _ pissing me off! _ ” Kara exclaims, throwing the piece onto the table. Winn catches it right before it falls onto the ground.

 

“Ruining the one won’t make it any better when you find the other,” he minds, placing it gently onto the table. Lena does her best not to pay attention to it so she doesn’t disobey her promise to Alex.  _ It doesn’t matter, _ the thinks, but a glance at the piece has her mind whirring with thoughts of  _ why, why, why does she need it? _

 

“Yeah,” Kara huffs, fidgeting with the ear piece. “I guess I just won’t wear this one and just deal with it.”

 

“Do you wanna go to the library for lunch?” Lena suggests.

 

“You can’t eat in there,” Winn and Kara say, with Kara’s being much more of a whine.

 

“Then…” Lena thinks. “We’ll just eat outside. It’s not cold.” Kara nods solemnly before looking at Winn, who looks horrified.

 

“You can borrow my coat or just eat inside, it’s okay.” The bell rings and Kara stops to breath deeply. She opens her eyes to see both Lena and Winn looking at her worriedly. “I’m fine, guys,” Kara says with a light chuckle. I’ll be okay.” Her friends nod and Winn hurries back to his seat.

 

“I’ll buy you your lunch,” Lena offers. “Just go outside in the courtyard and I’ll meet you there, okay?”

 

“Thank you, Lena,” Kara says quietly, leaning into her best friends side for a hug. She lingers there for a moment and Lena revels in the warm feeling it gives her. She rests her head on top of Kara’s and neither can find the effort to move. The teacher starts and Lena takes notes, and before either of them know it, the bell rings and class is dismissed. 

 

“Oh,” Kara jumps, “I almost fell asleep.”

 

“Good thing you know what you’re doing then,” Lena quips, standing up and making sure Kara takes her ear piece with her.

 

“Yeah,” Kara says with a yawn. “You’re comfy,” she says, taking the piece from Lena’s gentle hand and putting it in.

 

“Kara I wouldn’t wear it if I were you,” Lena says gently. “It seemed to really bug you.

 

“I’m only gonna wear it in the halls,” Kara shrugs, walking out the door.

 

In the hall, both girls walk slowly. Kara either has her bare ear plugged with her hand or pressed against her shoulder to keep noise out. Lena decided to walk Kara to her class, even though it meant she probably would have to run back to her own.

 

When they reach the door, Kara smiles at Lena and whispers a  _ thank you _ that is so quiet Lena can’t hear it. Lena smiles and pauses, not sure what to do. Kara leans in and gives her a hug, being extra careful not to crush Lena. The minute warning bell goes off, and Kara pushes Lena away with a small  _ bye _ .

 

Lena rushes to her class, walking in the door right as the bell rings. The lessons fly by as Lena thinks of Kara. Only Kara.

 

* * *

 

 

The people in the lunchroom eye Lena oddly as she walks towards the doors with a tray covered in food. She pauses and turns back to go see what the others’ plans are.

 

“Guys,” she says as when they’re in ear shot. “I’m taking this all out to Kara, she’s outside. I’m not sure if you wanna come with or not…” Lena trials off, eyeing Alex, who starts to stand up. “I don’t really know how it normally is or anything so I wanted to come by and check…”

 

“Good job, kid,” Alex says, putting her arm around Lena’s shoulders and turning them away. “You guys stay here,” she says over her shoulder to the rest of the table. Once they leave the building and head toward the courtyard, Alex removes her arm.

 

“Thanks for being such a good friend to Kara,” Alex says. “It means a lot to me. And it means a lot to her.”

 

“Kara is my best friend,” Lena announces, not quite knowing what else to say.

 

“Even with the big elephant in the room?” Alex wonders.

 

“Especially with that,” Lena nods. Alex looks at her oddly, and Kara comes into sight. “Well,” Lena expands, “look at her. She’s vulnerable, and I have no idea why. But she still sees me as a person that can help. I’ve never been needed or wanted like this…” she trails off, and Alex pulls her into a side hug.

 

“Hey, Kara,” Alex whispers, setting her bag down next to her. Kara looks up and smiles at her sister and her best friend.

 

“Hi guys,” she says, shifting so she can sit next to both of them. “Thank you Lena,” Kara practically moans, reaching for the food. She eats it slowly, not in a ravenous mood. 

 

“Hey Kara,” Alex says after a moment of silence. Kara hums in response and pauses with a chunk of brownie on it’s way to her mouth. “Did you tell mom you couldn’t find the earpiece?” Kara puts the brownie in her mouth and tries her best to sink into the wall behind her. “So no,” Alex says with a sigh.

 

“Why?” Lena asks, not realizing it might be a bigger issue.

 

“You realize that if you told her that’s why you were running late she would’ve dropped everything to look for it, right?”

 

“I know,” Kara whispers dejectedly. “She just does that so often.”

 

“What, drops everything for you?” Alex asks. At Kara’s nod, she scoots over and hugs Kara. “That’s because she loves you.”

 

“You’re worth the extra effort,” Lena adds, kind of understanding the way Kara felt. “It’s okay to be needy,” she adds with a shrug. “That’s something I didn’t realize until Lionel told me it was okay. 

 

“I know,” Kara repeats, hiding her head. “I just don’t  _ want _ to be extra effort. I wanna be normal.”

 

“Well, Kara,” Alex says, sending Lena a warning glare. “You’re not,” she says with a shrug. Lena’s mind whirls with this tidbit, trying to find out where it fits, why it’s an issue, but she forces herself to stop. “We love you just like you are. We’re  _ so  _ lucky to have you here. None of us care that you’re extra work or that you’re not normal. You’re Kara. Kara Zor-El,” she says, glaring at Lena again, who nods, “and we love you. We’ll find your earpiece when we get home.”

 

“Okay,” Kara says, wiping at the tears on her face. She stays hidden in Alex’s shoulder and Alex whispers to Lena.

 

“You never heard that, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Lena nods.

 

_ What the hell? _

 

* * *

 

 

Later that night, Lena sat at their window thinking. About Kara.

 

Not about the new clues and about who she was, no. That project was abandoned. Kara would tell her when she was ready.

 

No, Lena was thinking about how hurt she looked. How small, vulnerable. So unlike the Kara she knew. The only thing today confirmed for Lena was that Kara was more multilayered than anyone else she might ever meet.

 

“Hey Lena,” Kara says, sitting down at the window. Lena jumps slightly and turns toward her friend, who was trying to get as much sun as possible. 

 

“Hey,” Lena replies just ask quietly. Kara laughs as Frank hops onto Lena’s lap to say hello and reaches over to pet him. “How was the rest of your day?” Lena asks.

 

“Good,” Kara says simply. “I found my earpiece. It was tangled up in my blankets.”

 

“That’s good!” Lena says, turning to look fully at Kara. “Wouldn’t it be smart though to have another pair? For times like this, when you can’t find one?”

 

“Yeah,” Kara says with a dull laugh, “I was supposed to have two pairs. But… when Jeremiah died he wasn’t done with the second set. Eliza didn’t know how he did it, she works more with biology, Jeremiah did a lot of the technical stuff,” Kara explains with a  wave of her hand. “So they were never finished.”

 

“Why couldn’t you get them completed by someone else?”

 

“They’re- I don’t know,” Kara says, trying to come up with a lie. “They’re the only thing that ever worked for me, and Jeremiah was the only one that knew how to make them.”

 

“Oh,” Lena says, trying to push that information and the waiver in Kara’s voice far away from her mind. “That’s too bad,” she says, not really knowing what else to say.

 

“Yeah,” Kara mumbles, pulling her cardigan tighter around her shoulders. Lena shivers as a strong wind blows past, and scoots to be in the sun more. “Oh, here,” Kara says, standing up. She comes back with an oversized red sweater in her hands and holds it out to Lena.

 

“Thanks,” Lena says softly, shifting to put the sweater on. Kara sits and Lena pulls the sleeves down over her hands and brings them up to her face. The sweet scent of Kara floods her senses and she takes a deep breath in. It’s like getting a never ending hug.

 

“So I was thinking,” Kara starts. Lena is jolted out of her sweater induced trance and looks from the sunset towards her friend. “Hanukkah starts soon.”

 

“It does,” Lena replies with a nod when Kara doesn’t continue.

 

“I was wondering if you would wanna join us for one of the nights,” Kara asks. “Not the first or the last, Eliza wants those strictly family only. But maybe the second?” Kara turns to look at Lena and is shocked by the presence of tears falling down her friend’s cheeks. “Oh no, Lena don’t cry, oh- I didn’t- hang on,” Kara stammers, hurrying to get a box of tissues just a  _ little _ too quickly. ‘Here,” she says, handing it to Lena.

 

“Thanks,” comes out a stuffy response. Lena sniffs and wipes at her eyes, trying to conserve her dignity as much as possibly. “Kara, I would be honored to join you for a night of Hanukkah.” Lena lets out a little laugh when Kara braces herself and leans to hug Lena (complete with the hover, but again, no one needs to know). 

 

“I’m glad,” Kara whispers as she pulls away. 

 

“Should I… bring anything?”

 

“No, just yourself,” Kara assures. “And it’s just casual. The only difference is that before we eat I light the menorah.”

 

“Okay,” Lena says with a sniffle. “When is it?”

 

“Wednesday is the second day,” Kara says.

 

“I’ll be there,” Lena says diffinitively. Kara laughs lightly at her tone and settles down to watch the sunset.

 

“Have you thought at all about what you’re going to get for secret santa?” Kara asks after a moment with a sly grin on her face. Lena reaches over and smacks Kara’s shoulder.

 

“No, actually. I’m thinking of dropping out of it and leaving my person giftless,” Lena announces with a roll of her eyes.

 

“Wait,” Kara says, alarmed, “really?”

 

“No,” Lena laughs, “I’m not telling you Kara.”

 

“It was worth a stab,” Kara shrugs.

 

“You mean a shot?” Lena asks quietly.

 

“That’s what I said,” Kara chuckles, lightly nudging Lena. Lena sighs and leans back with a smile. Kara sits up when she hears her name being called from downstairs.

 

“Oh,” she mumbles, scrunching her eyebrows. “I’ll be right back, Lena,” she says, standing up and walking out of her room.

 

“Okay,” she hears come lightly from behind her. Upon entering the kitchen, she sees Eliza leaning against the counter with the phone held loosely in her hand.

 

“Winn’s on the phone for you honey,” she says, handing the phone off to a smiling Kara.

 

“Hey Winn!” she greets.

 

“Hey Kara,” Winn says, “James and I were thinking about going to a movie and we were wondering if you wanted to come with?”

 

“Really?” Kara asks. Not that she didn’t want to hang out with them, it would just be the first time that they all hung out together  _ outside _ of school. “Umm yeah!” Kara decides. “I’d love you, but what movie?”

 

“Umm,” Winn drawls, “we don’t actually know yet!” 

 

“What?”

 

“We were gonna decide when we got to the theater,” he explains.

 

“Oh!” Kara replies. “Okay cool, that’s fun, that’s… spontaneous!”

 

“Exactly my thoughts, pal bud- dy…” Winn says awkwardly. “Yeah. So! Do you wanna come?”

 

“Yes!” Kara decides. “Um.. can I bring Lena?” she asks.

 

“Yeah definitely!” Winn agrees. “Yeah, mhm. Just meet us at the theater in like… fifteen minutes, okay?”

 

“Yeah, okay. Cool!” Kara says. “Alright, um, I’ll see you then!”

 

“Cool, bye!” Winn says, hanging up shortly after. Kara takes a deep breath and pauses for a moment.

 

“That was awkward,” Alex calls from behind her.

 

“Alex!” Kara says, startled. “I didn’t hear you.”

 

“So you found your ear piece,” Alex says, walking around to face Kara. “You’re getting better at phone calls,” Alex declares.

 

“Really?” Kara asks excitedly. “They’re just so weird to me…” she trails off, “but I’m glad I’m getting better.”

 

“Mmm,” Alex hums. “So do you need a ride to the movies?”

 

“Yes,” Kara says gratefully. “Um, let me just go ask Lena.”

 

“Okay,” Alex says. Kara jumps up the whole flight of her stairs in her rush. 

 

“Lena, Lena, Lena!” Kara calls as she runs down the hall and into her room.

 

“What?” Lena asks with a chuckle.

 

“Let’s go see a movie,” Kara says, plopping heavily into her seat.

 

“What?” Lena asks again, this time without the chuckle.

 

“Yeah, Winn just called and invited you and me to go see a movie with him and James!”

 

“Um…” Lena says hesitantly. “Okay,” she agrees.

 

“Really?” Kara asks. “You wanna go?”

 

“Sure,” Lena says with a sigh. “Should I change?” She asks, looking down at herself in jeans and Kara’s red sweater.

 

“No,” Kara says with a shake of her head. “You look perfect!” Lena blushes and nods her head.

 

“Okay,” she says breathily.

 

“We need to go in five minutes,” Kara says. “Alex is gonna give us a ride!”

 

“Okay,” Lena says again, a bit hesitant.

 

“Meet you outside in five minutes!” Kara yells, grabbing her shoes on the way out the door. Lena takes a deep breath and grabs her only pair of sneakers before leaving the room. She makes her way down to the study and pokes her head in the door to find a note and some money on the table. 

 

She walks over to the desk and picks up the note from her mother, which is just  _ weird _ , and reads that she’s left for the weekend. The money is what baffles Lena most, but she reaches the end and finds an added on note from her housekeeper (and one of her oldest friends, but that’s not the point) saying to go out and have fun.

 

Lena grabs the money and shoves it in her pocket as she runs freely out the door. She runs down the driveway, cursing the fence they put in that stops her from just cutting across the lawn. When she reaches Kara’s door, it’s with a big smile on her face and her hair wild from the wind.

 

Kara hears Lena on the porch and calls for Alex, telling her it’s time to go. When she opens the door and sees Lena, a smile stretches across her face. The brunette looks so free and happy that it makes Kara giddy.

 

“Let’s go!” Kara exclaims, grabbing Lena’s hand and pulling her to the car.

 

“Uh, Kara, you better sit in the front seat,” Alex calls as she walks out of the door. “I’m not a chauffeur.” Kara huffs and rolls her eyes to look at Lena, who laughs and gets into the back seat. Kara smiles as she enters the car, excited beyond belief to go to the movies with her friends.

 

Which is dampened, a little, by Alex’s pestering once she pulls out of the driveway.

 

“You have your earpieces?”

 

“Yes,” Kara huffs.

 

“You have the money mom gave you?”

 

“Yes,” Kara drawls.

 

“You’ll call me if anyone needs a ride home?”

 

“Yes!” Kara whines, throwing her head back dramatically. The chuckle she hears from the back seat confirms that her dramatics were appreciated. She sits back up and smiles at Lena in the side mirror and wiggles in her seat as they round the corner. The theater comes into sight and Kara spots Winn and James standing outside.

 

“Okay, okay, okay!” She shouts, slapping Alex on the arm to tell her to stop. “Bye!” she says quickly, leaning in to give Alex a kiss on the cheek before shooting out of the car.

 

“Watch her, okay?” Alex asks as Lena opens the door.

 

“Sure,” Lena agrees. “Thanks for the ride,” she says, getting out of the car at a  _ much slower _ pace than Kara. Alex watches Kara pulls her friends into a group hug and shakes her head. She pulls away from the curb with a laugh as a shocked Lena is pulled into a hug by Winn.

 

* * *

 

 

“So what movie do you guys wanna see?” James asks as Kara releases him from her vice grip.

 

“Um,” Kara falters. She follows Lena’s line of sight to the posters lining the walls advertising the movies currently playing. “I don’t know. These don’t look like any movies I’ve ever seen.”

 

“What movies do you like?” Winn asks, opening the door and ushering everyone inside.

 

“Not that,” Kara says, pointing to a poster that looked especially creepy.

 

“Okay, so no horror,” James says, reading the movie list above the ticket sellers head.

 

“Well, we can’t really get into a lot of movies,” Lena points out. “We’re young.”

 

“Yeah,” Winn shrugs, “let’s just go see Curious George.” Winn pulls crumpled bills out of his pocket as James barks out a laugh. Lena smiles and hands Winn her money, who takes some more cash from Kara and James before bouncing up to the counter and getting tickets.

 

“Curious George?” Lena asks.

 

“It’s about a monkey, I guess,” Kara says, pointing at a movie poster.

 

“Cool,” Lena comments with a nod, taking the popcorn that James pushes into her hands and walking into the theater.

 

* * *

 

 

“Well that was,” Lena starts.

 

“Amazing,” Kara interrupts, wiping tears from her face.

 

“Oh, Kara,” Winn sighs, rubbing her back. “It wasn’t even sad!” Lena hands Kara a napkin as the four of them make their way out of the theater.

 

“Doesn’t matter,” Kara says, before taking a deep breath and blowing her nose. “He found a home,” she says sadly, blinking to stop her tears. Lena, James, and Winn all shoot each other worried glances. James puts his arm around Kara’s shoulders and Lena grabs her free hand.

 

“Do you,” Lena starts, nervous about Kara’s reaction. “Do you wanna go get food? I know it’s kind of late but-”

 

“Yes please,” Kara whines, shifting from sad and crying to sad and rushing towards a diner.

 

Lena doesn’t know whether to laugh or call a doctor when Kara’s entire demeanor changes once they set foot into the diner. The blonde immediately rushes towards the cakes and finds one (or two) that she likes before following James and Winn to a booth. Lena laughs lightly when Kara beams up at her, patting the space on the bench next to her, signaling for Lena to sit there.

 

With a smile masking her emotions, Lena sits down and eyes the rag-tag group of teenagers around her.

  
_ Friends _ , she thinks.  _ I finally have real friends. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh shoot!!! lena is getting closer to the truth! I wanna make her not know anything for sure until their sophomore year, so she just gets to get all these juicy clues and never get a confirmation :)
> 
> a lil teaser since everyone knows by now i take forever to update even when i dont mean to: next chapter will feature the hanukkah dinner with lena and maybe another visit from lionel! 
> 
> also, for future reference, the lionel and lex i use are the ones from smallville. the same goes for clark and lois
> 
> thanks for reading! see you next time :))


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